Television program shot in Dougherty County - WALB.com, Albany News, Weather, Sports

Television program shot in Dougherty County

November 11, 2003

Dougherty County -- A video crew is spending three days in Southwest Georgia, making a documentary television show about Bob White Quail and their habitat. Wildlife experts say programs like this will do a lot to protect South Georgia's quail, and guarantee their future.

The three person video crew from Atlanta was at the Albany Nursery Wildlife Management Area this morning. They are shooting an episode of "The Natural South", which is shown on Turner South network.

Suzan Satterfield is the producer of the show. They will point out that Georgia's quail population has declined by seventy percent since the 1960-s. Satterfield said "Not necessarily just hunters. The D.N.R. tells me there are some elderly women who are interested in bringing it back. They remember from their childhood the calls and the beauty of the birds, and they just love it."

The state's Bob White Quail Initiative Coordinator, Reggie Thackston, is one of the people featured on the show. "It's important in an economic sense as well as an ecological sense that we manage the habitat to support quail that also supports song birds and a variety of other wildlife species."

But can a television show explaining the joy of quail hunting and the importance of protecting their special habitat really make a difference? Bob White Program Director Breck Carmichael said "It's extremely important because we are trying to raise the awareness in the public's knowledge of some of these species that are in a declining state.."

The video crew will also shoot near Thomasville and Tallahassee in the next two days for their program on Bob White quail.

 This episode of "The Natural South" is scheduled to air the last weekend in February on Turner South.

posted at 4:14 PM by jimw@walb.com