The costs of land stewardship and public preferences for financing stewardship on wild bobwhite properties

Private landowners in the southeastern United States conduct land stewardship activities to manage for northern bobwhite quail. I conducted semi-structured interviews with 37 landowners and managers of wild bobwhite properties from May 2021 to February 2022 (total of 65,317 ha in bobwhite management) in Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina to capture the costs and possible revenues associated with wild bobwhite management. Landowners spent an average of $154/acre/year (~$381/ha/year; median of $142/acre/year or ~$352/ha/year) to intensively manage wild bobwhite. I also administered a stated preference choice experiment survey from June 15th to July 19th, 2022 to residents in the Southeast to quantify the value that the public places on the ecosystem services provided by wild bobwhite properties. On average, respondents placed positive value on bobwhite and gopher tortoise recovery, groundwater recharge, and scenic open spaces. Respondents deemed stewardship on bobwhite properties a good use of taxpayer dollars.