With 160 acres, Tyson Jelinek is doing what he can to see more quail in southeast Kansas.
It wasn’t that long ago that the waterfowl had almost completely disappeared from the region, thanks in part to larger fields and changing farming practices, at the cost of wildlife habitat.
“But they’re starting to rebound,” Jelinek said. “I’m seeing more and more.”
Jelinek’s efforts on his small plot of land will be recognized Saturday with a Bankers Award, courtesy of the Allen County Conservation District. The Conservation’s annual dinner begins at 6 p.m. Saturday in the John Silas Bass North Community Building.
Jelinek remains modest about the recognition.
“We’re just a small little piece of land,” he said. “I’m sure there are far more deserving recipients than I am.”
But while his acreage is small, Jelinek’s conservation efforts are anything but.
Of his 160 acres, 62 of which are tillable farmland, that leaves nearly 100 acres of pasture.
He acquired the property about three miles north of Iola in 2013, and noticed immediately it was susceptible to erosion, with little wildlife habitat.
“The county put a watershed on the property in the 1980s or 90s, and a lot of water goes through there,” he explained. “Erosion has always been a problem.”
Through the Conservation District’s cost-share program, and with a healthy assist from the Sutherland family, Jelinek has installed multiple terraces on the ground.
“That’s really helped,” he said. “The Sutherlands do a great job.”
On top of that, he converted the fescue pasture grass to a native grass — big and little bluestem — in a bid to see more wildlife, in particular deer and quail. He’s also removed roughly a mile’s worth of hedgerows and locust trees.
“It’s been a lot of fun to clean that place up,” Jelinek said.
Yet the work remains unfinished.
“I’d like to get more food plots growing” for the aforementioned deer and quail, he said. “It’s made for a better hayfield.”
