We purchased what is now Noble Ridge Ranch in 1987.  It has been a working cattle and sheep ranch along with 20 acres of christmas trees.  I use to make a yearly hunting trip to eastern Oregon to bird hunt with my dad.   My work as a veterinarian, along with the ranch work, kept me too busy to keep up the tradition of the yearly trips that I loved so much.   Now that I am semi retired from my veterinary work I have decided to put the extra time and effort into a game bird hunting preserve on my own property.   I am setting aside 80 acres of grass land to use solely for bird hunting.  Other areas of the ranch are being left undisturbed for wild birds to nest and grow.  My goal is to improve the wildlife habitat at the ranch to increase the wild bird population.   I am hoping to raise approximately 1,000 birds annually to release for hunters and also release extra birds to improve the wild population.   My goal is to give hunters, as natural a place to hunt and work their dogs as possible.  We currently have a one year old German Shorthair Pointer named Noble Ridge Wild Rose or "Rose" and a GSP pup named Noble Ridge Von Greif or "Grif". 

I would like to thank my neighbor Ron Hjort for all his help in putting up the big fly pen for our birds.  I would also like to thank Steve Waller of Cabin Creek Kennels for all of his support and help and Dana Westbrook for supplying all the metal that went around the fly pens. 

I look forward to meeting and making friends with many bird hunting and bird dog enthusiats young and old.  My only wish is that my Dad could be here by my side but I know he is smiling down from above. 

Duane Stutz