Alright yall that got a little heated. I have heard and read about the Sichuan pheasant program. And while I do realize that it was not a success, habitat for pheasants at that time was quite frankly terrible. That was back when they thought simply putting more birds out would solve the problem. Another cool thing I found was that one of the release sites is exactly where our farm is now back when it was a dairy operation. I do believe that wild birds are better but when our valley was surveyed for a WPRA application, the PGC said that there were too many Amish farms that wouldn’t participate in the program, so wild birds are not obtainable. I’m simply trying to find as close of an alternative as I can. Much has changed in the area since the 80s when the Sichuan project took place, with quite literally over a thousand acres of idle grass set aside. Some of it is not high quality grass being goldenrod and some cool seasons like Timothy and orchard grass yes I understand but it beats “dirt and macadam” as OT said. A couple of the neighboring farms CREP contracts expired and are putting them into NWSGs so that’s a big step in the right direction. While as stated before with the wild birds not being obtainable, we have seen levels of success with our version of soft release with regular ringnecks, and I think that if we use even a slightly wilder bird, we might see a pocket of sustaining birds. As said before. We had two hens both rear successful broods this past summer so with extensive habitat management I think some form of success is reachable.