Dallas man is a friend to the quail he hunts
By Ray Sasser, The Dallas Morning News,
Source: MCT News Service
SEYMOUR, Texas _ The classy little black-and-white pointer was locked up like the rusted lug nuts on a 1938 Buick when Bob Carter climbed out of his Kawasaki Mule and walked into the brushy Baylor County draw.
As he walked past the rock-solid bird dog, a covey of 20 quail erupted from a bush and scattered against the blue sky in a thundering flurry of wing beats. Carter never even shouldered his shotgun.
"Why didn't you shoot, Bob?" asked hunting guide and ranch manager Chris Timmons.
"They were just so beautiful," responded the 72-year-old Dallas businessman, who grew up quail hunting during the halcyon bobwhite era of Georgia hunting and has witnessed thousands of covey rises in his career.
Carter will be feted Thursday as the recipient of the 2010 T. Boone Pickens Lifetime Sportsman Award. The annual honor, accompanied by a bronze of flushing bobwhites, is presented by Park Cities Quail during the organization's annual fundraising banquet and auction.
Carter and his wife, Janice, own the Circle J&B Ranch near Seymour, 4,000 acres of rolling hills interspersed by brush and native grasses overlooking the Salt Fork of the Brazos River.
"Where I grew up in Georgia, quail hunting and bird dogs reigned supreme," Carter said. "When I was 13, my dad gave me an old 1938 Buick, which I promptly converted in a bird hunting machine by removing the back seat and replacing it with a platform for the dogs. Overnight, I became the Huck Finn of quail hunting, and my love for the sport has never ended."
The Carters formed Panda Energy International in 1982, with Janice naming the company after an environmental icon. Their business interests are wide and include ownership of a televised pro wrestling league. They spend as much time as possible at the ranch, often accompanied by their children or grandchildren.
"The first meal Bob requested when we were married was quail, biscuits and gravy," said Janice Carter. "One of the things he does when we drive around at the ranch is to literally taste the wide assortment of native seeds a quail might eat, just to see how they taste. He never kills a bird that he doesn't check its craw to see what it's been eating."
Carter and Timmons have steadily improved the Circle J&B for quail, but they're fighting a depressing ebb tide. According to the National Audubon Society, America's bobwhite quail have declined from an estimated population of 31 million in 1967 to about 5.5 million today.
West and South Texas, along with western Oklahoma, represent the last sizable stronghold of American bobwhites. PCQ is an energetic organization of volunteers with a mission to sustain and restore huntable wild quail populations. In the last three years, the group has raised more than $1 million toward that goal.
PCQ is also a leader in the formation of Quail Coalition Inc., a nonprofit organization consisting of former Quail Unlimited chapters throughout Texas. PCQ withdrew from QU last June after prolonged issues with the national organization based in Edgefield, S.C.
PCQ chairman Joe Crafton said Quail Coalition Inc. is starting with 3,000 dedicated quail hunters and leadership that has proved to be the most committed and accomplished among all sportsman conservation groups. He said money raised in Texas will remain in Texas to fund research programs like the Rolling Plains Quail Research Ranch.
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Park Cities Quail
What: Dallas-based organization dedicated to quail conservation and America's hunting heritage.
Accomplishments: Raised more than $1 million in three years to support the Rolling Plains Quail Research Ranch.
Fundraiser: Thursday at Pioneers of Flight Museum. Tickets and details at www.parkcitiesquail.org. Information about the Quail Coalition is available at www.quailcoalition.org.
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