A Quail of a Tale
Yes, there is an organization in Park Cities dedicated to quail, fittingly named Park Cities Quail. The group is awarding Ted Turner the T. Boone Pickens Lifetime Sportsman Award at its annual dinner and auction at the Frontiers of Flight Museum on March 8.
The advocacy group was formed in 2006 in response to the dramatic decline of wild quail throughout Texas. It holds fundraisers and conducts research to support the state’s quail population.
Joe Crafton, Park Cities Quail chairman, said Turner, who owns several ranches and plantations, has a passion for quail hunting and has restored habitats, funded research, and created opportunities for hundreds of youth and sportsmen to get outdoors and share his favorite pastime.
“We are pleased to honor Ted Turner with this award. He has a global reputation as a conservationist and humanitarian,” Crafton said. “Ted is a man of action, who uses his considerable resources and influence to make this world a better place.”
Turner is chairman of the Turner Foundation, an independent family foundation that supports efforts for improving air and water quality, developing a sustainable energy future to protect the earth’s climate, safeguarding environmental health, protecting and maintaining wildlife habitats, and developing practices and policies to curb population growth rates.
“I applaud the work of Park Cities Quail and its grassroots fundraising for research and education,” Turner said. “I look forward to attending the event in Dallas on March 8 and swapping bird hunting stories with my friend Boone Pickens.”
Crafton said that unlike most sporting conservation groups, Park Cities Quail is 100-percent volunteer.“A committee of 18 committed volunteers make it all possible,” he said. “This allows us to keep our expenses extremely low and maximize our donation to the Rolling Plains Quail Research Ranch.”
In its history, the dinner and auction event has resulted in more than $1.9 million in donations to the Rolling Plains Quail Research Ranch and the Texas Bobwhite Brigade. The Lifetime Sportsman Award is a specially commissioned bronze sculpture of three flushing bobwhite quail by sculptor Walter Matia.
“This is the sixth year of our event, and it continues to get better every year,” said Scott Asbury, the event’s auction chairman. “We have a great party that is becoming known as ‘conservation’s greatest night.’”
If you plan on going, there are less than 40 tickets left.