Habitat that Works – Ten Mile, Roane County, TN
Sorghum, big bluestem, and partridge pea working together to provide high quality habitat for northern bobwhite and other wildlife.
Protecting land is a wonderful thing, and it’s even better to manage and improve that land for wildlife! FLC partnered with this landowner in 2008 to place a conservation easement on more than 900 acres located in Ten Mile, TN. The farm features more than 60 individually managed fields supporting a variety of wildlife, including white-tailed deer, wild turkey, and northern bobwhite.
Partridge pea is an important high-protein food source for bobwhite quail, and its seeds persist through fall and winter
Along with usual food plot species like sorghum, soybeans, and lespedeza, native warm season grasses and native forbs like partridge pea help provide high quality habitat that wildlife (especially bobwhite) need to thrive. The fields are managed by prescribed burning in alternate years, spraying for invasives, and lightly disking every 5 years to inhibit woody growth and maintain the native annual plant community.
