ALBANY A.V. Jones is an old-time West Texas oil man, a geologist by trade and president of Van Operating Limited, an oil exploration business with operations worldwide.
But, equally important to Jones is his lifetime quail hunting avocation. Friends refer to Jones as “the Dean of North Texas Quail Hunters,” a title that amuses him.
“If being the Dean’ means the guy who’s been here the longest, then I’m probably guilty,” chuckled Jones. “No, I’m really not that old. I’ve just been hunting quail a long, long time.”
Quail and oil in equal proportions were the two ingredients that initially landed the Jones family in Albany years ago. The odd recipe continues to hold A.V. there today.
“My dad was in the oil and gas business,” said Jones. “He was also a big-time quail hunter and always had a pen full of bird dogs that I took care of as a little fella in the late 30s and 40s. I started hunting quail with him, and by the time I was in high school I was training dogs for myself. I just literally grew up hunting birds.”
Having been an avid quail hunter for well over half a century, Jones has some interesting insights on quail hunting dynamics and its emerging economic role into the Texas ranch business. Over the years he’s had the privilege of hunting on many of the North and West Central Texas area’s finest quail hunting ranches.
“During the 40s we had great quail years,” said Jones. “In the 50s drought we went down to almost nothing, and then bird populations came back with the rains in the late 50s. But, back (then) few people out here hunted quail. A few of the ranchers hunted, and there would be a few hunters from town and that was all.
“But that’s all changed now. This area, what we call the cross timber area of North Central Texas, has become the state’s quail hunting hot spot. The Dallas-Fort Worth hunters and those from the south are all coming in here. They’re good hunters with good equipment. Even their bird dogs are better than they used to be.”
Jones contends that the growing popularity of quail hunting, coupled with modern farming practices, land fragmentation, and introduced mono-cultural pasture grasses (e.g., Bermuda) all put a strain on quail populations. But there are other factors now affecting bird populations that are not so easily identified.
“There is no question that there is a decline in quail populations throughout the South,” said Jones. “The center of quail in the country used to be Albany, Ga., but now Georgia is suffering major quail losses.
“There are still places in south Georgia where you can go out and move 15 or 20 coveys of wild quail a day, but you can’t believe what it’s costing that land owner to maintain those birds. There used to be great hunting in Arkansas and Louisiana, too, but it’s also in decline. East Texas was once a good place to hunt wild birds, and now it’s practically gone.”
Jones is a staunch advocate of the Quail Decline Initiative currently before the Texas legislature. The initiative, if funded, would provide $3.7 million to the Texas Agricultural Extension Service for a focused educational program for landowners on decline of quail and associated songbirds and general education for youth and adults.
The initiative also provides for research to identify factors contributing to quail decline and mitigating management practices; restoration of quail habitat in 12 targeted counties through use of cost-share funds; economic impacts of quail and related enterprises; and research on management strategies for fragmented landscapes.
“The Quail Decline Initiative’s potential economic return will be so many times greater than the initial investment,” said Jones. “Simply stated, quail have the potential to be one of the main factors that save our ranching business in Texas. Our ranches in the Albany area are mainly big land holdings that are in fairly sophisticated hands. They’re either owned by long-time ranching families or controlled by bank trusts that understand the value of quail hunting. Even in this traditionally strong cattle area, deer and quail hunting together have as much or more value than the livestock.
“Quail influence the land values in this area big time. The cattle stocking rates are pretty well fixed so the only variable is hunting and the recreational use of the land. The land values here are as high as they’ve ever been. There are more big ranches for sale here today than I’ve seen in the 50-plus years I’ve been watching the market. They’re selling because the land itself is worth so much more than its traditional production value. That puts the land under a lot of pressure to collect that value from a strictly business standpoint. When a ranch does sell here, the buyer nine times out of 10 is a hunter.”
Jones said hunting is changing, too.
“Used to, you just had to have a bird dog and a few shotgun shells and you were in the quail hunting business. Now you’ve got to have a lot of equipment and an expensive lease to hunt on. I do think that the quail hunting rights to a good bird hunting area will become more valuable than the deer hunting rights in the future.
“There is a real move on to get out of the cities and into the country for enjoyment, and people are willing to pay for it. When I was a little fella, my father would decide where he was going hunting. He’d call up the rancher and secure permission and we’d just go hunting there. I don’t know if there was any leasing done here up until way past the 60s. Now I dare say there’s no place in Shackelford County that the people will let just anybody come out and hunt. It’s either owned by somebody who is a big-time hunter himself or it’s leased to someone for quail hunting. I don’t know how that equates in total dollars to the area they say an outside dollar turns over four times but, it has a big, big dollar effect on the whole area. All the counties north and south through here, starting almost at the Red River and going east and west for a couple of hundred miles, are helped by quail hunting.
“I don’t see this trend stopping. It’s eventually going to put real pressure on rural life and quail hunting in particular. There are answers, but properly handling the situation is going to take management. That’s why we need the Quail Decline Initiative, so the proper choices can be made to preserve this most precious natural resource for future generations.”
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