Shinnery oak trees scrape against the sides of Brandon Lofton’s white Tacoma truck as he makes a sharp turn on the twisting dirt road, dust trailing in the late afternoon light. After 20 minutes of jolting over uneven ground, the vehicle grinds to a halt beside a patch of little bluestem. From the driver’s window, a voice cuts through the silent pasture.

“We’ve got some quail!” Lofton said.

Lofton is a graduate research assistant at Texas Tech Quail, a research unit housed within the Department of Natural Resources Management in the Davis College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. During the spring semester, he spends much of his time at the Pitchfork Ranch near Guthrie, Texas, where Tech Quail is in the midst of a five-year research project focused on the integrated management of bobwhite quail.

Brad Dabbert, Ph.D., lead scientist at Tech Quail, said the goal of the research project is to increase quail populations while also maintaining more consistent and sustainable population levels through droughts. Achieving this, he said, could have reverberating positive effects across the Rolling Plains and beyond.

“Quail are really important, ecologically, to the ecosystem,” Dabbert said. “They’re also socially and culturally important…quail hunting and quail have been part of the ranch life and the rural life for years.”

Tech Quail first became a research entity at Texas Tech University in 2010. While their research area has shifted since its inception—the unit previously worked with 24 different ranches—its commitment to student learning has remained steadfast.

Rowdy White, manager and biologist at Tech Quail, works daily with both undergraduate and graduate students involved with this research project. From broadcasting supplemental feed to habitat management, he said there isn’t much field work the students don’t get to try their hands at.

My work with bobwhites is important, but the work with the students is more important.

Rowdy White

“By the time they get to be seniors, they’re almost full-fledged biologists,” White said.

Working with the land feels second nature to him, but for White, there’s more to the job than time spent outdoors and data collected in the field, he said.

“My work with bobwhites is important,” White said, “but the work with the students is more important. I’m only able to manage so many acres—these kids are gonna go out and manage everything, and maybe eventually I’ll be working for them if I ever leave here.”

Additional reporting and photography by Jordan Albus, Kylie Mask and Lillie Caudle Valdez.