Quail Forever partners with Missouri Department of Conservation to Restore Remnant Prairie

By Gilbert Randolph

Quail Forever field staff in Missouri recently partnered with the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) to start the process of restoring a piece of remnant prairie in northern Missouri. The 73-acre Blazing Prairie was acquired in 2025 through the Build a Wildlife Program (BAWA) and transferred to MDC and is now open for public hunting. 

Blazing Prairie is situated in the heart of the Grand River Grasslands, an MDC priority geography for bobwhite quail. It’s a short distance from the Nature Conservancy’s Dunn Ranch Prairie, a 3200-acre intact grassland that supports bobwhite, free ranging bison and numerous other upland species. This region is a stronghold for bobwhite populations in Missouri and Iowa, and Blazing Prairie increases both the amount of useable habitat and public hunting access for upland birds.  

Quail Forever field staff assisted MDC staff in removing invasive plants and pushing back woody encroachment on the area. The property is a remnant prairie, where native species are dormant in the seedbank, waiting for the right conditions to make a comeback. MDC hopes to conduct prescribed burns on the area this year, which will help create the conditions for those native plants to reemerge.  

“I love being a part of hands-on habitat work,” said Savannah Janssen, a Quail Forever Farm Bill biologist in Missouri. “We were able to spread out across the area and efficiently tackle woody encroachment. In just two workdays, we made significant progress in preparing the site for a prescribed burn.” 

The variety of native forbs and grasses found in remnant prairies provide excellent food resources, brood rearing habitat and pollinator habitat. Josh Marshall, Quail Forever senior Farm Bill wildlife biologist, observed big blue stem, Indiangrass, slender mountain mint, goldenrod and compass plant on the area. This is a promising sign that other native species remain in the seed bank. As with other remnant prairies, such as on Missouri landowners and Quail Forever members Bruce and Marla Mestad’s property, there’s the potential for rare native species to emerge and once again produce seed.   

Blazing Prairie is one of two recent BAWA acquisitions, the other being the 120-acre Pawnee Prairie. While much of our nation’s native grasslands are being lost to woody encroachment, agricultural conversion and urban development, it's efforts like these that are defending core habitat areas. Quail Forever, through direct collaborations such as the recent work, as well as a new memorandum of understanding (MOU), works alongside agency partners like MDC to help accomplish the shared mission of protecting the future of bobwhite.  

“Anybody who spends ten minutes out here will understand why this is important and why we need to protect it,” said Eric Systma, a habitat protection officer for Quail Forever who was instrumental in acquiring Blazing Prairie. “Being a part of the team that protects these landscapes is truly a privilege.” 

These parcels also sit within a priority area for Working Lands for Wildlife. The Working Lands for Wildlife partnership supports the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service's premier approach for conserving America's working lands to benefit people, wildlife, and rural communities. Through private lands conservation, public land habitat work and building partnerships with state agencies and other non-government partners, Quail Forever delivers landscape level impact for bobwhite. The work on Blazing Prairie is an example of that strategy being put into action.  

Learn more about the work Quail Forever is doing in Missouri here and get connected with a Quail Forever biologist here.