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Texas Bobwhite Quail in nesting habitat. Bird conservation efforts.

2023 Statewide Quail Symposium Registration Open

By Rolling PlainsJuly 30, 2023June 6th, 2025Articles, Media
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Registration for the 2023 Statewide Quail Symposium is now open!  You may go to the following website to register for the Symposium or contact [email protected] for a registration form.  Early registration tickets are available for $75 or $50 for students until July 31, 2023, after that it is $100 or $75 for students.

https://secure.qgiv.com/for/rollingplainsquailresearchfoundation/event/2023statewidequailsymposium/

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    Rolling Plains Quail Research Ranch
    1262 US Highway 180
    Rotan, TX 79546

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    Rolling Plains Quail Research Ranch
    1262 US Highway 180
    Rotan, TX. 79546

    © 2026 Rolling Plains Quail Research Foundation.


    Select photos provided by Russell Graves Photography, Joseph Richards,  Katy Hoskins, Emily Thornock, and Kasey Pirkle.

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      Honoring Dr. Dale Rollins: A Lifetime Devoted to Quail

      Few individuals have had a greater influence on quail conservation, research, education, and hunting heritage in Texas than Dr. Dale Rollins. As Dale enters retirement, the Rolling Plains Quail Research Foundation is proud to recognize our founding Executive Director and celebrate a career that has fundamentally shaped both RPQRF and the quail community across Texas.

      From an Idea to a Research Foundation

      The story of RPQRF began, appropriately enough, following a quail hunt. In 2005, a conversation around the tailgate of a pickup centered on a troubling question: what could be done to ensure that wild quail—and the tradition of hunting them—remained part of the Texas landscape for generations to come? From that conversation emerged the idea for a dedicated quail research ranch: a living laboratory where scientists could study wild quail, test management practices, and share what they learned with landowners and hunters.

      Dale was instrumental in turning that idea into reality. He helped found RPQRF and assumed the role of Executive Director, guiding the organization through its formative years and helping establish the Research Ranch in Fisher County. He served as Executive Director until 2021, when he transitioned to Director of Outreach.

      What began as an ambitious idea grew into an organization recognized throughout Texas and beyond for its commitment to applied quail research. Under Dale’s leadership, the Research Ranch became a place where researchers could challenge conventional thinking and investigate questions involving habitat, prescribed fire, grazing, predators, disease and parasites, translocation, and other factors affecting wild quail populations.

      More Than a Quail Biologist

      Dale’s influence, however, extends far beyond RPQRF. He spent more than three decades with Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service and AgriLife Research, including many years as an Extension Wildlife Specialist based in San Angelo. His career combined research with a remarkable ability to translate science into information that landowners, hunters, students, and wildlife managers could actually use. He authored dozens of Extension publications and hundreds of popular articles and was eventually named Professor and Extension Specialist Emeritus by Texas A&M University.

      Perhaps one of Dale’s greatest contributions has been his ability to create students of quail. Through QuailMasters, Quail Appreciation Days, countless presentations and field days, and later the Dr. Dale on Quail podcast, Dale brought quail science to an audience far beyond the traditional academic community. He understood that conserving quail required more than publishing research—it required creating informed and passionate advocates for the resource. His commitment to developing the next generation of conservationists is equally significant.

      Dale founded the Texas Brigades program, beginning with the Rolling Plains Bobwhite Brigade, which has introduced generations of young Texans to wildlife conservation, leadership, land stewardship, and the outdoors.

      A Legacy That Will Continue

      Dale’s contributions have earned him numerous honors, including induction into the Texas Conservation Hall of Fame, recognition as a Field & Stream “Hero of Conservation,” and recognition by Outdoor Life as a “Quail Crusader.” Earlier this year, RPQRF and Park Cities Quail Coalition further honored his legacy through the establishment of the Dale Rollins Quail Hunting Hall of Fame Award, recognizing individuals who embody the principles Dale has championed throughout his career: science-based management, responsible land stewardship, ethical hunting, education, and respect for the resource.

      For RPQRF, Dale’s legacy is visible everywhere. It is present in the Research Ranch itself. It is reflected in the scientists and students who have conducted research here, the landowners who have changed management practices because of something they learned from Dale, and the young people who discovered careers in wildlife conservation through programs he helped create.

      Most importantly, it lives in the community of quail hunters, biologists, landowners, donors, students, and conservationists who have adopted Dale’s lifelong determination to ensure that wild quail remain on the Texas landscape.

      Today, RPQRF continues to grow and pursue new research questions using technologies and approaches that could scarcely have been imagined when the idea for a quail research ranch was first discussed around that pickup tailgate. But the purpose remains remarkably similar: use good science to better understand wild quail, share what we learn, and preserve Texas’ wild quail hunting heritage for future generations. That mission is inseparable from Dale Rollins.

      On behalf of the Board of Directors, staff, researchers, supporters, and friends of the Rolling Plains Quail Research Foundation, thank you, Dale. Thank you for your vision. Thank you for your leadership. Thank you for teaching generations of us to become better students of quail. And, above all, thank you for dedicating a lifetime to the birds, habitat, people, bird dogs, and hunting traditions that make Texas quail country so special.

      Enjoy your retirement, Dr. Rollins. You have certainly earned it.

      $25 Donation 

      What Your Donation buys

      • One quail necropsy
      • 100 quail leg bands
      • 1 – 48 pack of AA batteries for game cameras
      • Two SD cards for game cameras
      • Materials for one quail trap

      $10,000 Donation 

      What Your Donation buys

      • New UTV
      • 1-mile of fence
      • Water well, trough and solar pump
      • Grubbing attachment for skid steer

      $5000 Donation 

      What Your Donation buys

      • Salary and fringe benefits for a Master’s graduate student
      • Auger attachment for skid steer
      • Telemetry receiver for tracking radio-collared quail
      • 20 hours of mesquite grubbing with an excavator

      $2500 Donation 

      What Your Donation buys

      • Wildlife water guzzler
      • One-month’s salary for college intern
      • 10 hours of dirt road maintenance
      • Native grass & forb seed to plant 25 acres

      $1000 Donation 

      What Your Donation buys

      • One set of truck tires
      • Booth display banner & materials for quail educational outreach events
      • One month of gasoline for Quail Technician UTVs
      • One water sprayer for prescribed burning

      $500 Donation 

      What Your Donation buys

      • One hour of helicopter time surveying of our Research Ranch (10 hours/year needed)
      • One pair of binoculars for Quail Research Technician
      • One pair of rangefinders used for distance sampling on quail surveys
      • One set of UTV/ATV tires

      $250 Donation 

      What Your Donation buys

      • One GPS quail transmitter
      • 1,000 quail leg bands
      • One VHF collar for a quail
      • One trail camera to monitor nests & predators
      • Wildlife water trough

      $50 Donation 

      What Your Donation buys

      • Two quail necropsies for parasites
      • 200 quail leg bands
      • One headlamp for night work
      • Two pairs of forceps and set of petri dishes
      • Materials for two quail traps
      • One oil change for UTV

      Through the generosity of The Richard King Mellon Foundation and The Conservation Fund, a 4,820-acre ranch in Fisher County was purchased in October 2006.

      Our Research Ranch makes RPQRF the only conservation group in the world with its own property dedicated exclusively to understanding quail through science. It functions as the nexus of our operations and all decisions and actions on the Research Ranch are based on quail.

      Our fulltime staff and team of graduate students work year-round to develop the best practices for quail management, prescribed burning methodologies, grazing procedures, predation management strategies, and pinpointing which grasses and “weeds” make ideal quail habitat.

      We also trap and study as many as 5,000 quail annually and use the latest technologies – radio telemetry, GPS, thermal cameras, helicopters and even drones – to count and track quail populations. Then we share what we learn so others may follow.

      Every organization has its humble beginnings. The Rolling Plains Quail Research Ranch was hatched around the tailgate of a pickup one evening in 2005 after a successful quail hunt. The 2005 season was a great one, and quail hunters’ spirits were high. But knowing that one didn’t have to move very far east before quail (and quail hunting) were only memories, our discussion focused on the future, and not on the laurels of our past. Indeed we should heed the lessons observed over the past 30 years from east Texas to the Atlantic Coast. Someone pondered “we need to get ahead of the curve and get serious about planning the route now, before ‘all’s quiet on the western front.”

      The idea of a quail research ranch was bantered around – our own laboratory to devise and evaluate land management schemes aimed at enhancing bobwhite abundance. It was also suggested it would be great to have a ranch to demonstrate good management to other “students of quail.”

      The egg was laid and after an incubation period of about two years, the dream became reality. The Foundation and its Research Ranch were established to provide a living laboratory to devise land management strategies for the benefit of quail and also as an exemplar property to demonstrate the best methodologies and techniques to other “students of quail.”

      Two men using radio telemetry equipment with antennas on an ATV. Wildlife tracking.
      Outdoor event: Group of people gathered for a hunting or conservation meeting in a rural landscape.
      Cattle ranchers gather in Texas pasture. Ranchers in hats, trucks, and grassland under cloudy sky. Ranch management meeting.
      Man feeds wild quail. Birds fly over desert landscape with blue sky. Bird watching, wildlife photography.
      Two pointer dogs with hunter. Hunting dogs on point with hunter holding shotgun in background.

      “To preserve Texas’ heritage of wild quail hunting for this, and future, generations.”