Essentially, upland birds need three types of habitat. They need foraging areas, escape/roosting/thermal cover and nesting habitat. The key is ensuring that those habitats are present when the birds need them and are properly located across the landscape so that birds can have ready access to those habitats when needed. It makes no sense to locate high quality foraging sites miles away from prime roosting habitat or invest huge amounts of time and effort in establishing foraging areas when there is little or no nesting cover. To use the phrase "build it and they will come" for wildlife habitat management is just too simplistic. We are not building a Hollywood fantasy baseball field for imaginary ghosts of baseball legends! We are building complex and dynamic habitats that real upland birds are interacting with 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year. Therefore, the real-world goal is to "build it so they will come and manage it so they will stay!"
After a site survey of the property and extensive discussions with the landowner(s), property manager and/or other interested individuals about their goals for the property, a site-specific Habitat Management Plan will be developed to help guide future management. There will also be updates, as required, based upon fundamental monitoring that will also be included in the plan. The Habitat Management Plan will be a synopsis of what is known about the habitat requirements for the species of interests and various habitat (vegetation and water) management techniques designed to optimize wildlife benefit. The Habitat Management Plan will be customized to address local conditions (climate, vegetation, soil characteristics, water availability, etc). There are no generic or "one size fits all" management plans. For example, what is required to raise high quality wild rooster pheasants in the Great Basin/Intermountain West is not the same as South Dakota or Iowa. Therefore, site-specific management plans are required to address the limiting factor(s) that are responsible for keeping upland gamebird populations from reaching their potential.