When you plant a few seeds, you never really know all the benefits that will sprout.
Dundee High School juniors Olivia Ott, left, Shelby Musial, center, and Hannah Lloyd, right, release a box of quail that students raised as part of a four-year project to repopulate southern Michigan with Bobwhite Quail at FCA US Dundee Engine Plant on Oct. 5, 2016.
Thanks to the planting of native Michigan prairie grass at our Dundee Engine Plant 10 years ago that 132-acre grassland is now home to about 400 bobwhite quails.
That is important is because the northern bobwhite is the only species of quail in Michigan. Since the 1970s, there’s been a dramatic decline in the bobwhite population, as much as 90% in some areas.
The effort to help restore Michigan’s bobwhite quail population is spearheaded by Dundee High School’s Future Farmers of America chapter.
“When we embarked on this project, we wanted to find a local property that could offer them the best ecosystem where they could thrive and multiply,” said Tom Stahl, the chapter’s advisor and agriculture teacher at Dundee High School.
“When we approached representatives at the Dundee Engine Plant, they were quick to support our students’ learning opportunity and to offer the feed and feeders to help condition the birds to their new environment.”
Dundee High School students and FCA US employees will monitor and support the four-year project.
If you’re wondering how the quails were named bobwhite, click and you’ll hear why.
Dundee Engine Plant earned the Silver status for results in implementing World Class Manufacturing (WCM) methodology. WCM focuses on reducing waste, increasing productivity, and improving quality and safety. The bobwhite quail reintroduction supports WCM’s Environmental pillar, one of the 10 technical pillars in WCM methodology.
