Jessica McGuire

Quail Forever

Dr. Jessica McGuire is the Quail Forever Science and Working Lands for Wildlife Northern Bobwhite Framework Coordinator. She is responsible for the coordination of science and delivery in the implementation of the USDA’s Northern Bobwhite, Grasslands, and Savannas Framework. She resides in Georgia on her family farm where they raise cows, pigs, and two boys.

Even though she loves her northeastern roots, she became enamored with the southeastern coastal plain during her dissertation work. Her family remained in the south where she dabbled in consulting and then began private lands habitat work as a Farm Bill biologist with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. After a brief stint as Georgia’s Red-cockaded woodpecker biologist, she ultimately became Georgia’s Private Lands Program Manager.

Much of her career has focused on the restoration and conservation of the Longleaf Pine Savanna ecosystem, focusing on the diversity of wildlife, particularly quail and other upland birds, the gopher tortoise, and Red- cockaded woodpecker. She is passionate about equipping people to be effective conservationists and land managers. To save the uplands, a concerted effort towards restoration must occur, while balancing our working lands.