Military installations can be anchor points for habitat connectivity

When most people picture a Marine base, they might imagine rows of barracks, the hum of heavy machinery, and the sharp cadence of military drills. But at Marine Corps Logistics Base (MCLB) Albany in southwest Georgia, another mission runs parallel to supporting America’s military personnel––managing and restoring the land itself, treating stewardship as an essential part of its operations.  

That mission is now strengthened by a close partnership with Quail Forever (QF), whose Georgia habitat team now plays a key role in the base’s land management and wildlife restoration efforts.

At the heart of the on-base work are Julie Robbins, MCLB Albany Natural and Cultural Resource Manager, and Scott Dismuke, MCLB Albany Biological Science Technician/Natural Resource Specialist. Together, the two oversee about 1,600 acres of land on the 3,300-acre base, balancing ecological restoration, aesthetics, and hunting opportunities.

In recent years, the demand for more hands-on habitat work had outpaced what the two-person team could accomplish alone. Through an intergovernmental agreement, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service provided the base with $50,000 to fund habitat improvements and contracted QF to deliver the work. An 18-month agreement allows the Georgia QF habitat team to assist with any land management needs Robbins and Dismuke may require. 

“We have a small staff, so having Quail Forever on the ground with us is huge,” Robbins said. “They’ve helped us meet our burn goals and take on big projects we’d otherwise have to put off.”

For Robbins and Dismuke, the partnership has been transformative. The Georgia QF habitat crew has helped burn hundreds of acres, remove exotic pasture grasses and invasive trees, maintain cultural features like a historic pecan orchard, and prepare fields for dove and quail hunts.

“What they [QF habitat team] can get done in one day might take us three or four weeks to accomplish on our own,” Dismuke said.

Across the Department of Defense (DoD), the Sikes Act, a U.S. law enacted in 1960, mandates the conservation of natural resources on military lands, ensuring that species and ecosystems are sustained alongside operational needs. 

That mandate is more than a policy at MCLB Albany; it’s a daily practice. For Robbins, it has meant tackling long-standing challenges in the landscape and restoring the land to balance.

Robbins said that early in her tenure, decades without prescribed fire had allowed the hardwood midstory on the base to grow 20 to 30 feet tall. Through years of thinning and burning, the base has restored more open habitat, creating the conditions that creatures like Bobwhite Quail, Bachman’s Sparrows, turkeys and deer need. 

“When I first got here, we might have had two coveys of quail,” Robbins said. “Now I can walk outside of the office and hear them calling all around me.”

Miranda Gulsby, QF’s Georgia State Coordinator, said the collaboration between QF and MCLB Albany goes beyond just improving one single property.

“Military installations can be anchor points for habitat connectivity,” Gulsby said. “When we manage these lands well, they become strongholds for species like Bobwhite Quail, and they can connect habitat on private and public lands nearby.”

This strategic land management, along with the additional manpower of QF, has also helped improve the base’s hunting access, one of the unique benefits the base offers to active-duty military members, military retirees, DoD civilian employees and their families to enjoy. 

Long before the QF Georgia habitat team began work on the base, QF had been helping lead youth quail hunts on the base for years. MCLB Albany provides hunting courses and facilities while QF brings guides, dogs and firearms, turning hunting opportunities into both recreation and hands-on lessons in quail conservation and habitat management.

“Sharing that experience with the marines stationed aboard the base and seeing their families participate with them and the activities, whether it be a youth quail hunt or deer hunting, just seeing the joy they get from being part of it is probably one of the best things about my job,” Robbins said. “I love the habitat restoration, but I also love seeing people being able to enjoy it and seeing their appreciation develop for it.”

With QF’s help, Robbins and Dismuke will continue to keep thinning overgrown pine stands, suppress invasive plants and expand prescribed fire. Long-term goals include reestablishing longleaf pine and its native groundcover to support wildlife, enhance hunting and maintain fire-dependent species.

“This partnership provides the opportunity to continue QF’s relationship with the military and their habitat work,” Gulsby said.  “It sets up a good model and structure that helps us as a team in Georgia to understand what our military bases need, what challenges they face and what things we can help them overcome through a partnership.”

For MCLB Albany, the mission will always be to support America’s warfighters. But thanks to partnerships like this one with Quail Forever, it’s also about supporting the wildlife, the landscapes, and the traditions that make southwest Georgia home.