Pheasant Ranch

March 17, 2008

Dorris rancher decides to raise birds instead of cattle

By Andy Martin

For the Daily News

DORRIS ’Į Nine years ago, with cattle prices down and farmers throughout the Klamath Basin struggling with low water supplies and increased hay costs, Burt Holzhauser pondered about the future of his ranch.

A third-generation rancher in rural Siskiyou County , Holzhauser decided to sell his cattle and start a pheasant hunting club. Today, the Rising Sun Ranch Hunting Preserve is one of the more successful pheasant hunting destinations in the West.

’I was in the field plowing one day and it popped into my head,’ Holzhauser recalls. ’I thought about it for a while. There were no pheasants in this area at all. But I thought it would be a good thing to do.’

Holzhauser’s grandfather, Herman, homesteaded 1,080 acres 38 miles south of Klamath Falls in 1880. Growing up on the ranch, Holzhauser’s father and grandfather would take him bird hunting when they weren’t busy with the cows or growing grain or alfalfa.

’When I was a kid there used to be a lot of pheasants over at Tulelake and Lower Klamath ,’ Holzhauser says. ’I liked to hunt them.’

After a substantial investment in pens, incubators, wires, netting, hunting dogs, feed and the initial birds, as well as the state licenses and red tape, Holzhauser’s dream of a pheasant club became a reality.

’I had to do a lot of work on the habitat,’ Holzhauser says. ’You have to keep doing it every year. It’s an ongoing thing.’

Hunters from all over the West Coast now come to the Rising Sun. Most comment on the high quality birds and excellent habitat. ’I’ve got a lot of grasses and sagebrush and a variety of different things,’ Holzhauser says. ’I put in a lot of fruit trees.’

Many hunters who have been to private pheasant clubs before immediately praise Holzhauser’s pheasants for their flying ability.

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Source:  http://www.siskiyoudaily.com/articles/2008/03/17/news/100news2.txt