Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency is offering one-time incentive payments to help landowners in Lawrence and Giles counties create habitat for quail and other wildlife.

Bobwhite quail, along with other wildlife that depend on the same habitats, such as field sparrows, Bachman’s sparrows and cottontail rabbits, have been suffering from long-term population declines.

The incentives are in addition to habitat enhancement programs offered by the United States Department of Agriculture.

Practices Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency will help pay for include:

n Conversion of at least 5 acres cropland or grassland to native grassland with native shrub thicket and/or hedgerows.

n Establishment of at least 5 acres of pollinator habitat (wildflowers with some native grasses and shrubs) in blocks and/or field buffers.

n Performing prescribed burning, strip disking, strip herbicide application, and/or shrubby cover development on at least 5 acres of existing

native grasses not currently under an active USDA contract.

n Prescribed burning of thinned woodlands.

n Development of shrubby cover by thinning the edges of woodlands adjacent to fields and/or renovation of existing hedgerows.

n Establishment of wide (over 50 foot average width) native grass buffers in the Conservation Reserve Program.

For more details, landowners should contact their local USDA Service Center.

Conservation Advisory Board meeting

The Alabama Conservation Advisory Board will meet at 9 a.m. Feb. 4 at the State Capitol Auditorium in Montgomery.

Registration for those wishing to address the board will be 8-8:30 a.m.

The Conservation Advisory Board assists in formulating policies for the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources examines all rules and regulations and makes recommendations for their change or amendment. This includes hunting seasons and bag limits.

Red deer hunting season

A special red deer hunting season is set to be held in Claiborne County, Tenn. Jan. 14-22.

The special red deer hunting season was established last spring in an effort to manage the small population of the exotic deer.

The hunting season is open in the portion of Claiborne County east of Highway 25E from the Kentucky state line to the Highway 33/25E intersection in Tazewell and east of Highway 33 from the Highway 33/25E intersection to the Union County line.

There is no bag limit on red deer and either sex may be harvested by gun, muzzleloader or archery equipment. Hunters must submit red deer harvested for biological sample by taking them to Southern Outdoors, 2809 U.S. 25E in Tazewell.

Most of the herd is located on private lands. Hunters must have permission of the landowners to hunt on private lands. State law prohibits hunting from a motorized vehicle and hunting from or across a public road or right-of-way.

For more details call Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency at 423-587-7037.

Dennis Sherer can be reached at

256-740-5746 or dennis.sherer@TimesDaily.com.