As publishedNov 7, 2026 - Jan 31, 2027
Closed on all public lands west of the Blue Ridge Mountains and on Flippo-Gentry WMA in Sussex County.
VA DWR runs a real two-instrument suite (a spring whistle-count survey and a rural mail carrier survey), cited via secondary sources as showing ongoing decline (4.0%/year and 2.9%/year respectively), plus a Hunter Cooperator program whose own participation has fallen to 58 active cooperators from a 200+ peak (VA DWR describes it as "in danger" of being lost). A direct fetch of DWR's own quail trends page (dwr.virginia.gov/quail/hunting-information/trends/) on 2026-08-19 found no dated 2025 or 2026 update -- active monitoring confirmed, but no discrete dated report located this pass.