CHANUTE ? For the third year in a row, landowners in Allen, Bourbon, Crawford and Neosho counties may receive financial incentives or cost-share payments for creating and enhancing habitat beneficial to quail.

Wildlife and Parks, in conjunction with the Southeast Kansas Quail Working Group, is offering as much as $2,000 annually per cooperator.

The incentives are in response to dwindling populations of bobwhite quail, perhaps this region’s most important game bird.

Habitat improvements eligible for payment include fescue replacement, establishment of native grasses, hedgerow renovation, strip disking, early burning of native grass and planting food plots or leaving grain in the field.

All habitat improvements must be designated in a plan written by or subject to approval by Wildlife and Parks.

Brochures explaining the program, called the Southeast Kansas Quail Initiative, are available throughout the four-county area. A Wildlife and Parks video, “Giving Bobwhites An Edge,” outlines the bobwhite’s plight, dispels myths about the bird and offers potential management solutions.

The primary funding comes directly from Wildlife and Parks with supplemental donations from various local and statewide Quail Unlimited chapters.