"We know we have three coveys in one release area now," Mike said. "We're trying to bring in other birds so we get a better gene pool. Once they get established with a good, healthy population, we will look at different management techniques as far as allowing the public to utilize the birds."

On the Wolf River and White Oak WMAs, small-game opportunity begins with habitat management.

"Our focus at Wolf River and White Oak is small game -- especially rabbit and quail," said Wes Winton, TWRA Wildlife Manager at both WMAs. "Here at Wolf River they've done pretty good and we've seen a lot of young rabbits. A lot of the open fields we keep in early succession stages. We do warm-season grass management and burn on a two to three-year rotation. We have very limited food plots, and we have dove fields."

Like the other areas, they also had great mast production and expect abundant squirrel populations.

At White Oak, deer hunting is archery only, so the deer hunters aren't out with high-powered rifles.

"We cater more toward small-game hunters," Winton said. "They don't have the pressure of the big-game hunters, so they have a place to go where they don't worry about that."

Winton noted that there is a new proclamation this year at Wolf River.

"Hunters can't release their own game birds that they bought somewhere else. The biggest concern is disease. They will be cited and they could pay a fine of $200 or more."

Because White Oak is more rural (north of Savannah, on the Tennessee River), it doesn't see the kind of hunting pressure that many other WMAs receive, and Winton suggested that it could be more utilized, as could the quail hunting at Wolf River.

"We do a lot of work specifically for quail. We have many hunters come for rabbits, but quail hunter numbers are kind of down," he noted. "We do have ample opportunity for quail."

Different WMAs see different use patterns among hunters; in Tennessee, by far the highest sustained participation rate in hunting comes during deer season, though turkeys and doves are also hotly pursued during their seasons. WMAs with good deer and turkey hunter participation manage those game populations accordingly, but that doesn't mean the small-game species are left out of the management picture.