Upland Game Bird Management Account Projects

California Waterfowl will hire a coordinator to oversee the novice spring turkey hunt program. The coordinator will work closely CWA staff and Sacramento NWR Complex staff to perform various tasks, including conducting draws, website design, scouting hunting areas, setting up blinds, contacting and screening drawn hunters, communicating with volunteers, installing signage, checking in hunters and volunteers on the day of the hunt, conducting hunter safety meetings and assisting refuge staff with miscellaneous tasks and projects around the complex.

Through CWA’s relationship with private landowners, the program has created access to private and public lands and is identified as the California Waterfowl Hunt Program. The program has grown steadily over the past 15 years and now includes almost 40 individual properties encompassing over 60,000 acres.

This project will develop a workflow for processing existing audio data to develop mountain quail occupancy and abundance estimates and trends from 2010- 2021. This information is important to inform data driven Mountain Quail management approaches, including setting harvest quotas and guiding habitat management and restoration.

The California Conservation Genomics Project has whole genome sequences from 29 California samples of Mountain Quail. This project will generate additional quail whole genome sequences in priority areas to guide management in California.

This project will facilitate a spring turkey hunt program at the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge Complex in partnership with the National Wild Turkey Federation, providing volunteer guides as mentors for each successful applicant and funding to hire a Spring Turkey Hunt Program Coordinator.