People Ranching – Continues

It was in the mid1990’s that we really got big into People Ranching. I can assure you that ranching people requires more preparation and more planning than traditional cattle ranching.

As the economics of cattle ranching began to fade away and with generation changes and so did attitudes and interest in the environment, in conservation and in endangered species issues change, I found that the effort and experience gained here had unknowingly positioned Selah as a place to demonstrate just what can be achieved with habitat restoration. We were constantly being asked to speak to groups as well as requests to visit, especially after articles began showing up in newspapers, magazines and on television.

One day after I put had an exhausting two days, more or less showing off Selah to individuals, couples and groups who were eager to hear the gospel of conservation from me, Margaret said, “David, you’re wearing yourself out. You’ve had ten different guests; you’ve spent hours and hours with them. You can’t keep this up.” I replied, “People either own ranches and or have just bought land and they are searching for answers. I’m eager to help them.” “But you can’t keep this up. Why not just tell everyone that calls you’re going to hold a public tour this Saturday and for $5.00 per person you’ll show them what you’ve done, how you did it and answer questions. Tell them to be at the front gate at 9 a.m.” I’m supposed to be the businessman, but I never thought of this! Well, come Saturday morning I loaded bales of hay on a trailer thinking that maybe 10 or 15 people might be at the gate. Was I surprised – there was a crowd! We had two-way radios and I called for help and another trailer. I really don’t remember exactly how many people were there that day, it was more than 50, but this is when People Ranching began.

I’ve never inherited any money – what I did inherit, mostly from my mother Hester, was a love and respect for the natural world. In 1980, she died and I built, Hes’ Country Store, which came to be the first “infrastructure” that facilitated People Ranching. It was a gathering place, a place to sit and talk, a place to have a drink or to eat one’s lunch. A place to pause and reflect – Selah – places that can serve this purpose can be patios with picnic tables, or perhaps primitive seating along a trail or at some viewshed. To go into People Ranching you must develop some “infrastructure” and you must like people as a rancher likes his cows.

There is much more infrastructure we built that followed Hes’ Country Store and I’ll talk more in future postings on this blog, but I do add this admonishment: “Never initiate an action you are unable to sustain.”

Please bear with me. You can see a glimpse of Hes’ Country Store in the picture, but what today’s blog is about is People Ranching. Notice the tree planted with the corral protecting it. One treasured memory I have as a small boy is being with my mom many times planting trees, mostly Apple. Later she called me ‘Johnny Appleseed.’ Photograph taken by J. David.

What I’m doing across from Hes’ Country Store is building a forest! Our goal is to have at least one tree or shrub in our “forest” of every species that grows naturally in Blanco County. We’re now at 42 with many more to go and to grow. Some of the early introductions are 15 feet tall. Photograph taken by J. David.

Here now is People Ranching – Our Tree and Shrub Workshop. This was held October 17, 2009. There are many useful tips we’ve learned from planting more than 3,500 trees these past 40 years. We start with selecting the tree in a nursery, to digging a square hole! There is much more, but one thing is certain: A tree planted in the Hill Country must be protected from wild animals and livestock or you will lose it. In this workshop, you will learn to use a “key” that will help you identify a tree you may never have seen before! Here in the “forest” you will take, at the end of the day, your final exam. I will not live to see our forest reach full maturity, but I have the joy and pleasure of building and planting it. Photograph taken by Lois Sturm.

It was such a treat for all our adult students to have Jim Rhoades, our “Tree Aggie,” and his son, “Little Tree,” with us this day. Jim has a degree in Urban Forestry from Texas A&M. For 25 years, he helped me and taught me and others so very much about trees. He added so much to this workshop. Photograph taken by Lois Sturm.

Our classroom for all of the workshops is the entire 5500 acres! We use the “Bluebonnet” to move you from one site to another. Photograph taken by Lois Sturm.

There is a high point on the ranch of about 100 acres where the soil is different than most, a Redlands site. It’s on this site where Black Jack Oak and Post Oak predominate. Steven Fulton, Ranch Biologist, teaches the course. Photograph taken by Lois Sturm.

The Lindheimer Trail is just the opposite of the Redlands site. Probably six miles of separation between them. It’s down in a valley where for hundreds of years soil has been eroded off the steep hillsides. This has created a climate for bigger trees to prosper. There are no Post Oak or Black Jack Oak here. It covers an area of 100 acres and is the only area where Lacey Oak and Cedar Elms predominate. There are numerous other species here, but not in large numbers (other than Ashe Juniper, Cedar). They are Spanish Oak, Eve’s Necklace, Red and Yellow Buckeye and Escarpment Cherry. Because of the deep soil we have been adding Bur Oak and along the creek some Chinkapin Oaks. Photograph taken by Lois Sturm.

Along the trails we have built, with basically no expense, outdoor classrooms. (This is part of the “infrastructure.”) We used recycled boards from the floor of our cattle trailer and the sawed off ends of fence posts. Here the workshop participants get to ask questions and with the help of Susan Sander, a volunteer, formerly with the Texas Forest Service discuss tree health, ball moss and oak wilt. Photograph taken by Lois Sturm.

I’m teaching all the wonderful young people that work here to have a respect for O.P.M. – “Other People’s Money.” They are taking this to heart. Here they are, managing 5500 acres, with all that entails then add people ranching with 3500 visits per year. I doubt that any nature center in the U.S.A. operates so efficiently with a staff of five and yet we run a deficit every year. Will you please help by sending us a contribution which is tax deductible to the extent of the law. We are a 501(c)(3) private operating foundation. You can send your contributions to: Bamberger Ranch Preserve, 2341 Blue Ridge Drive, Johnson City, TX 78636.

People Ranching – Education

In 2003 Margaret and I learned that the failure rate in Science on the mandated tests by students in Title One Schools was nearly 100%. A Title One School is one where families are so poor that the students received free breakfast and free lunch. . . . There has been a lot written and researched on the problem. One well written book is Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv. He calls the problem Nature Deficit Disorder. We thought that we could help overcome this “Disorder” by inviting all fifth grade students, in selected schools in Austin and San Antonio, to come to the ranch for three days and two nights. Our goal was to awaken and nourish in these children a passion for learning about the natural world.

We all worked together to develop a curriculum that took place mostly out on the ranch, a 5500 acre classroom! The program was offered free to the schools. Their commitment was to measure results and to transport the students to us. It’s been a phenomenal success! Here are some of the activities taking place and the people bringing the programs to 5th grade kids from J. J. Pickle Elementary School in Austin.

Sallie Delahoussaye who has devoted many, many years of her life to rehabilitating raptors, shows the kids a Harris’ Hawk. The hawk is 22 years old and Sallie has had it for 21 years! Photograph taken by Justin Duke.

The hawk was robbed from the nest by the hands of some well meaning person who didn’t understand the needs of raptors. It was housed in a small wire cage, which is the worst thing you can do for any wild bird – it thrashed around in the cage breaking its feathers – its diet was probably hamburger whereas a raptor needs whole-animal prey such as mice – they need the calcium they get from the bones – without the calcium they develop metabolic bone diseases. When their diet is low in calcium, their body uses what calcium there is to carry on metabolism – This hawk has very limited flight ability as flight requires rotation of bones. All of this because of a poor diet. This bird can never be released. This sad case is all because of human ignorance, interfering in Mother Nature’s world.

Ed Sones, a rehabilitator and volunteer, holds another raptor species, a Mississippi Kite.

Imprint Doom

This bird had fallen out of a nest when only two days old. The nest was high up -100 feet in a tall pine tree in Houston. It was taken to a rehabilitator who fed him properly – crickets and mice. The rehabilitator worried about the bird imprinting on people as that was all he saw since falling from the nest. At four weeks he was brought to Ed Sones in Austin, but rehabilitators couldn’t find anyone around Austin who had any of this species. Ed took the bird to Lubbock. By this time, he was two months old. Even though with the six of his own species, he did not go on the migration with them. Instead he flew the neighborhood – landing with very sharp talons on people’s head and shoulders during outdoor barbeques, a danger to all. He was brought back to Ed who transferred him to Sallie, who now uses him for education programs such as this with J. J. Pickle Elementary School from Austin. Photograph taken by Justin Duke.

All guests are met at the “Historical Marker.” The burial site of man! Here Colleen Gardner, Executive Director of Bamberger Ranch Preserve, greets and orients the students as to what they will experience these next three days. Photograph taken by Justin Duke.

Scott Grote, Ranch Operations, demonstrates his horse and how helpful it is to him in rounding up cattle and goats. He explains just what a ranch does that contributes to their lives. The kids can touch and feel the horse. They are amazed as most only see a horse in a movie or television. Photograph taken by Colleen Gardner.

Here Justin Duke, Ranch Steward, has the young people in the water where they will sift out pond critters and later put them under a microscope to study life in the water. We supply all the boots and gear needed for all the programs. The extreme drought this year has hampered this program. Photograph taken by Steven Fulton.

Since J. J. Pickle has four fifth grade classes therefore it required all four weeks of October, one class each week, to do the program. We would be hard pressed to do this without the help of volunteers. Here Bob Boydston, a long time friend and volunteer, leads the “Pond Critters” program. Photograph taken by Justin Duke.

Steven Fulton, Ranch Biologist, leads every class on a night hike. You can imagine how the hearts of these young inner city kids were palpitating as they followed Steven down the dark trails! Each child is given a small flashlight, but asked not to use it during Steven’s program. At one of our outdoor classrooms Steven, sometime with his own lips, calls in a Screech Owl who lands within twenty feet of the kids. The night hike is a thrilling experience and much talked about from one class to the next. Photograph taken by Justin Duke.

I’m the last person the kids see prior to leaving the ranch. By now, the kids are so “into” everything in nature. In addition to that shown above they have witnessed a bat emergence from our chiroptorium, looked at the heavens through our observatory, seen dinosaur tracks, collected fossils, participated in bee keeping, learned about endangered species through our scimitar-horned oryx and more. So I have the most attentive and enthusiastic fifth graders in the world! My starting question is always the same, “How many of you would like to grow up and have a job like Big Steve (at 6’ 8” he’s called that by the kids) or Queen Colleen (she sometimes wears a tiara)?” All hands go up and I then say, “You can. Ask your teacher questions, read books and do your homework as your life will be so enriched by education.” Photograph taken by Justin Duke.

It’s here in Hes’ Country Store that I invite the kids to do a conservation project that their teacher can’t do. This interests them! The project is one of conserving family history, culture. I tell a brief story about my life when I was their age. I ask them to visit grandparents and find out about the clothes their Mom wore or the toys their Dad played with. Write it down, create a journal – a history. The best letter I ever got in my life went like this:

“Dear Mr. Bamberger,

I’m 92 years old - my granddaughter never gave a hoot about me until she came back from your place – and now thank you, sir, she comes to see me once a week with a clipboard and a pencil asking me all kinds of questions.”

We could use your financial help for this program. We’ve had some success in getting grants for it, but never enough to cover the raw costs. Your contributions will be tax deductible to the extent of the law. We are a 501(c)(3) non-profit private operating foundation. You can send your contribution to: Bamberger Ranch Preserve, 2341 Blue Ridge Drive, Johnson City, TX 78636.

People Ranching

It was in the early 1990’s while a member of Governor Richards’ task force on nature tourism that someone first spoke the words “People Ranching.” So it’s really not original with me, but we are the ones who have popularized it. Think about this ~ in early history, ranching meant raising cattle, sheep or goats. After World War II hunting was added to what ranchers did to help support themselves and this was a departure from tradition as it involved strangers being on the ranch. The addition of exotic animals and high fences meant more income, but of course more people. This was hard to accept by some of the “old timers” but generational changes, the need for income and a new breed of landowners saw the changes coming. The reality was that the economics of traditional ranching no longer made sense. It is my contention that you cannot buy any ranchland anywhere in the state of Texas and pay for it with any form of agricultural production. Why? Because land prices are now dictated by high income people who want the quality of life offered by rural land or the price is dictated by the population growth to whom the developer caters.

Now a new ethic is developing – that being an interest in preservation, conservation and species survival. So here on Selah we invited people, young and old to come, to see and to learn from our experience. We built infrastructure and developed programs and because of this new ethic people came and thus “People Ranching” became a real thing. I understand that the term has now entered college textbooks.

Each Spring and Fall we hold a series of workshops for new landowners, agency people, teachers or anyone interested in the topic. On October 10 a one day workshop affair titled “Grasses” was attended by 22.



Our Grass trail didn’t do well this year because of the very severe drought and record high temperatures. So Steven Fulton, Ranch Biologist, propagated and nurtured 30 species in containers. Photograph taken by J. David.

The containerized grasses enable everyone to see the grasses up close and some in a mature state. Each container is labeled. Here Steven is explaining details, the nomenclature of the plants. Photograph taken by Colleen Gardner.

Colleen Gardner, Executive Director, with two of the “students.” Everyone on the staff participates in all of our workshops. Photograph taken by J. David.

Ann Baird, who deserves a Ph. D., as she has taken four of our workshops. Justin Duke, Ranch Steward, is describing Big Bluestem. Photograph taken by Colleen Gardner.






This is were it all happens! Out on the ranch. We don’t spend any time looking at videos or virtual grasses. Photograph taken by Colleen Gardner.

Steven and Justin are with the “students” at all times. This is true in all our workshops. Photograph taken by Colleen Gardner.

There’s a coffee and restroom break at the Country Store at each workshop. Photograph taken by J. David.

By mid morning we find high spirits and bonding by the “students.” Photograph taken by J. David.





Check this blog next week for more on People Ranching.

The Drought Continues

September brought some relief from the all time record hundred plus degree days and we finally received some good rain - 6.15 inches. Every bit of which soaked into the ground. This was very good for the range grasses. It always amazes me how grasses can respond so quickly. All the pastures were brown and with no growth at all, yet in four days everything was green again. Wildflowers were blooming and grasses were shooting up and producing seed heads . . . . but this doesn’t end the drought. Remember that up until September we received only 11.24 inches for the year and during the hot summer months of May, June, July and August we only had 1.69 inches!

Since there was basically no runoff, our lakes, tanks and creeks are still, with a few exceptions dry. I hesitate to say the drought has a benefit, but it did give us the opportunity to remove silt from the lakes.

This tank was built in the late 1970’s. It has never been dry before and it was still boggy as the one loader got stuck in the mud. Photograph taken by J. David.

This pile of silt is 270 feet long, 50 feet wide and 6 foot high! Removal increased the tank capacity by 30 percent. After a prolonged drying out, we will spread it on the ranch. Photograph taken by J. David.

Madrone Lake, our most used recreation lake, on May 31, 2009. The creek that feeds it stopped flowing on July 28, 2008. Photograph taken by J. David.

Madrone Lake on October 8, 2009. The September rains soaked into the very dry earth. There has been no runoff to the lake nor spring activity to fill the lake. Photograph taken by J. David.

My observation of the effects of this drought on trees is that the most affected were Spanish Oaks. A Texas Forest Service representative estimated that we’ve lost 1,000! It surprised me that we lost at least five Bur Oaks. They have a tap root which goes deep into the ground. On the entire 5,500 acres I found only one Bur Oak. It’s probably 150 years old and in my 40 years here, it has never produced an acorn. We have planted all the other Bur Oaks on the ranch. Those five that died from the drought were seven to ten years old. Lacey Oak, some call it Blue Oak, and Live Oak have survived without loss. There has been some loss of Native Pecan, Walnut, BigTooth Maple, and Bald Cypress. It’s important to withhold judgement on this until next spring as some of these may come back to life.

This nice Spanish Oak shut down in late August. Aesthetically, it is a real loss as it was positioned along the road for all to see. Notice on the right a dead Bald Cypress. Photograph taken by J. David.

These are just two of many Bald Cypress we’ve introduced. Naturally there weren’t any on the ranch. I knew it was a risk to plant them at higher elevations, but since the creek had begun to run it was a good gamble. These are 40 foot tall and I don’t expect them to spring back to life as they got severely stressed in 2008 as well as in 2009. Photograph taken by J. David.

We call this the Catfish Tank. It has never gone completely dry. It has one spring and a 500 acre watershed to feed it. Photograph taken by J. David.

Obviously this tank has been dry long enough for cracks to develop and grass to grow. Photograph taken by J. David.

Because of the recent rains, one may want to declare this current drought over. This is not true. Conservation practices one may have developed due to the drought should become part of one’s life. Water is the single most important issue facing all of us.

Recycle and Reuse – Another Form of Conservation

After 40 years and nearly every tour or workshop held here on the ranch, I’m asked the question: “Is there any piece of equipment or practice that you would do differently?” My answer is always, “YES – except for chain saws (we’ve worn out 40), shop tools and an occasional new truck or stock trailer, all the big stuff was bought used for pennies on the dollar.” I believe the best buy was a D6 Catepillar bulldozer with drag scraper for $20,000. ~ Leroy has put 14,500 hours on it doing clearing, tank and road building. That’s $1,250,000 if you hired it done and you know that dozer would sell for more than $20,000 today!

Dozer Picture. Photograph taken by J. David.

Here’s my testimony. “If you have a tolerance for frustration and inconvenience, used equipment can save you 100,000s of thousands of dollars.” Now everyone doesn’t need a bulldozer. If you have a small ranch – under 200 acres – you can with a plan, time, small tools and physical work easily restore your property to nature’s balance and while doing it restore your mind and body.

Well back to my story . . . . I’ve experienced and learned a lot about land restoration, about water, wildlife, grasses, wild flowers, birds and people. I wish now that I would have bought a used commercial chipper and ground up the bulk of the cedar and other woody species that instead we burned. The thought never occurred to me then, although we eventually did windrow large amounts to help control run off and we did fill many canyons with brush. Both of these practices were very successful, but it took many years to prove so. One example was that Madrones came up through from the canyon floor, protected by the brush, now long gone. Wildlife habitat was created in those 10 foot tall windrows, but in the hundreds of piles of burned brush nothing but scorched earth remained. Flying over it looked like large sunspots. The soil was sterilized and all this through my ignorance. The first plant life in these burned spots emerged after 3 years. It was Horehound and our honey bees loved it as all our honey for 3 years tasted strongly of it. Now, there are practices learned today you can do to mitigate the sterilizing that comes with burning. Scott Gardner at Browning Ranch did research on this and has developed the practice. But just think how much biodegradable material went up in smoke! It could have been chipped and distributed back onto these barren caliche hillsides where it was sorely needed and the composting, the returning to the earth sped up by 20 years.

In the fall of 2004 as I was driving through Blanco, Texas, there at a business sat a Vermeer 625 chipper. Just what I’d wished for! I recorded the serial number, number of hours on the machine, looked it over carefully and vowed to come back for an equipment auction and buy it if it was to be a bargain. We verified everything through the very cooperative manufacturer. In today’s market, it sold new for $14,000 and with a low number of hours it should bring $8,000 to $10,000 at auction.

The day of the auction, I had a role to play in a workshop here on the ranch so I enlisted Scott Grote, our Ranch Operations Manager who also is a very good negotiator, to attend the auction and bid on the chipper, but “do not go over $5,000.” At mid-morning, Scott called to say, “The bid is $5,200; what should I do?” I said, “Come home.”

Some years ago but after I quit smoking, a friend said to me when I bummed a cigarette, “Damn it, Bamberger, you’re rich! Buy your own.” – I replied, “Well, you don’t get rich buying cigarettes!” Also, you won’t get rich if you’re casual about how you handle money. Develop a philosophy about money and live by it. You can do everything on your land that we did here irregardless of how much money you have in the bank – believe me!

Six months pass and I’m driving through little Blanco, Texas and my head does a turn ~ there on the same lot is that very same Vermeer 625 Chipper with a for sale sign! The gentlemen said that some fancy city guy bought it here at an auction, but it was too much for him to handle. He asked us to sell it for him. “What’s he asking?” “$2,000,” he replied! Patience? Luck? At any rate we now have a very useful piece of equipment that fulfills a valuable role here on Selah.

There are smaller models of other brands, but if you have a lot to do and a period of years to do it, this is an ideal model. Maintenance is important to cut down on frustration! Photograph taken by J. David.

We learned the hard way! The chipper sent a missile through the truck window! Expensive lesson. Here, Steven Fulton makes sure that doesn’t happen again. Photograph taken by J. David.

Who would have thought that the chipper would find another way to strike? A missile took out the outside rear mirror. Another costly lesson! Now, it’s folded in before feeding the chipper. Photograph taken by J. David.

You can’t feed the chipper until you prepare its diet! Steven Fulton handles the chainsaw. Photograph taken by J. David.

Justin Duke feeding cut limbs, trunks and branches into the chipper. The very valuable wood chips fill the truck bed. Photograph taken by J. David.

The truck is full. It took about one hour to cut and grind this much once we arrived at the job site. The shack in the background of these pictures is a whole new blog story soon to come.

Justin Duke and Steven Fulton unloading at one or our trailheads. Valuable mulch that we also use on new tree plantings. Photograph taken by J. David.

Selah, Bamberger Ranch Preserve — Leopold/Lone Star Land Steward Award

by David Baxter.

The following article was published in this September's issue of Texas Wildlife Association magazine. I know that very few of you who read my blog will receive this magazine, so I would like to share the article with you. I visited my brother in Oklahoma this week, so in using this article it gives me more time to prepare next week's posting!

—J. David

©2009 Texas Wildlife. Originally printed in Texas Wildlife magazine, September 2009, pp. 18-20. Reproduced with permission.

“Come on, Campers!”
Eighty-one-year-old J. David Bamberger urged on a scramble of biologists, reporters and other usually sedentary folk up a rocky hillside on his 5,500-acre Blanco County ranch. Reaching the top, without so much as pausing to catch his breath, the octogenarian apostle of conservation launched into an explanation of the latest low-tech way he is working to capture every raindrop that falls on his ranch, Selah, Bamberger Ranch Preserve. The rest of us, at least two or three decades younger, struggled to keep up with him and it would be a while before we had breath enough to ask a question that would sound like more than a wheeze.

It’s this tireless, persistent evangelism that earned Bamberger and the Selah Ranch staff the 2009 Leopold Conservation Award from the Sand County Foundation and Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, part of TPWD’s Lone Star Land Steward Awards. Your TWA and the H. Yturria Land and Cattle Company are among the award’s major sponsors.

What we heard this day – Bamberger’s sermon on the mount – was the outline of an ambitious project that will take 15 years to complete and thousands of volunteer hours to move by hand tons of rock to shape some 28 miles of berms and 12 miles of water pans.

The 81-year-old J. David Bamberger with his latest water-conserving project: simple rock berms that snake along the hill’ s contours to slow rainfall and trap sediment. Some 28 miles of berms are under construction – all by hand. Photo by Chase Fountain, TPWD.

The berms are low rock terraces that snake around the hillsides like contour lines on a quad map. When it rains, the berms slow the water’s downhill rush, and trap sediment. On top of the hill is what Bamberger calls a water pan – really nothing more than a shallow trench several feet wide, edged with rock. The idea is to hold rainfall and let it percolate into the porous Hill Country limestone.

All of the work is done by hand: by the hands of Bamberger and the Selah staff and scores of volunteers such as members of the Central Texas Trail Tamers in nearby Austin. Using heavy equipment such as bulldozers would be hazardous on Selah’s steep hills, and tear up valuable grass.

“This is nothing new, folks,” said Bamberger. “Ancient civilizations were doing much the same 5,000 years ago.”

Bamberger’s project is a little more recent, unveiled in October 2008 in response to nearly two years of little rain – 14 inches total in 2008 – and his concern that such weather patterns forecast things to come in Central Texas.

“The limestone hills of the Edwards Plateau are dotted with ‘perched aquifers,’” said Bamberger. “These are pockets of water perched above the main aquifer, usually on a hill top or hill side, separated from the main aquifer by a layer of rock that water can’t penetrate. Water from these little aquifers flows out in the form of hillside springs.

“After a recent heavy rain our first hilltop water pan filled with water. Within 48 hours, water flow in the nearest downhill spring box increased by a quart per minute – not much, but it adds up.”

Bamberger is quick to point out that all the ranch’s water needs are fed by two springs

“There are no working wells on Selah,” he said. “Two springs supply water for four full-time resident families and some 3,500 visitors a year. And, we don’t use pumps to move the water; it’s all by gravity flow.”

Atop a Selah Ranch hill, Bamberger has water pans – shallow trenches edged with rock – to hold rainfall and let it percolate into the ground. Twelve miles of water pans are being built. Photo by Chase Fountain, TPWD.

Bamberger’s current project of berms and water pans is the latest in 40 years of work to make the most of every raindrop that falls on his Blanco County ranch. What he did with “the sorriest piece of land in Blanco County” has become legend in the annals of private lands stewardship.

“In 1969, when I bought the place, we started drilling wells, but came up with little or nothing. In hindsight, we were drilling right past the perched aquifers. But, we also aggressively cleared cedar [Ashe juniper] by whatever means we could – axe, chain saw, loppers.

“Seven years later two creeks started to flow again; then 11 springs started running – not a huge flow, about a gallon per minute, but that’s 1,440 gallons of water a day. Our ranch families and visitors use about 50 gallons per day (our goal is 25 gallons/day/person); adequate, but far less than what the average American uses [some 80 to 100 gallons/day/person].

The long-term benefits of removing high-water-consumption trees such as Hill Country cedar and salt cedar is well known to TWAers. It’s not enough to remove a tree and its water use, but it must be replaced on the landscape with native grasses such as bluestem.

Bamberger has a demonstration he puts on for most all Selah visitors, and our group was no exception. It’s a “rain machine,” a demonstration – comparison actually – of how two landscapes react to a simulated rainfall. It’s a concept familiar to most [of] our members but, according to Bamberger, an eye-opener to urban visitors, especially school kids.

Conservationist as evangelist: Bamberger with a favorite native grass in front of a “rain machine” demonstration that shows differences in how rain moves across landscapes covered with such grasses compared to those with only cedar, Ashe juniper. Photo courtesy Selah, Bamberger Ranch Preserve.

“We pour water – ‘rain’ — into two pans,” he said. “One side showers a small cedar tree planted in a pan of otherwise bare ground. The other side has bluestem. Below each is a pair of glass containers: one marked ‘run-off’ the other marked ‘groundwater.’”

Bamberger’s rain produces immediate results on the cedar side: silty water starts flowing into the run-off container — nothing percolates through the bare ground and into the ground water container.

On the bluestem side things are pretty quiet until well after all water is poured into the rain machine. Only much later does the bluestem release a trickle of clean water into the ground water container – barely a drop goes into the run-off container.

On the right side of the rain machine, with Ashe juniper, silty water quickly runs into the “Runoff” jar, little into the “Ground H2O” jar. On the left of machine, the native grass side, water slowly trickles into the “Ground H2O” jar with little in the “Runoff” jar. Photo courtesy Selah, Bamberger Ranch Preserve.

“I love this plant,” said Bamberger, clutching a bluestem root ball to his bosom. “In one square yard of bluestem there are 25 miles of roots. Not only that, we measured summer temperature differences between the cedar and bluestem demonstration pans – it was 17 degrees cooler on the bluestem side.

“Among the many mistakes I made 40 years ago was thinking that I could buy all the native grass seed I needed to reseed the hillsides cleared of cedar. I spent $20,000 on seed; I cornered the market on native seed that year. It’s not something I would recommend to any landowner, regardless of their finances.”

Instead, Bamberger urges landowners attending his stewardship workshops to patrol highway rights-of-way and gather native seeds. Better yet, clear cedar in patches, leave downed boughs and leaves as mulch and let native grass infiltrate on its own.

“It doesn’t take lots of cash to be a good land steward,” he said. “But it does take hard work and dedication. Do what you can with what you have. Most of the landowners attending our workshops own less than 100 acres – 10- or 20-acre spreads.

“That trend towards smaller landownership, fragmentation, is typical of what’s happening in Blanco County. When I bought Selah in 1969, the ranch ranked 17th in overall size of county private lands. Today, it ranks number-three in the county, not because of acquiring additional land, but because other ranches have been broken up.”

On top of the ridge with the water pan, Bamberger spreads his arms wide and extols his visitors to go down and do the good work of conservation.

“Conservation is not just for the rich,” he said. “Anyone can do it, and they must. Water issues are bearing down on us; they will be the defining issues of our lives.”

Even in a two-year drought, Selah lakes have water in them, captured through aggressive rainfall management. Photo courtesy Selah, Bamberger Ranch Preserve.

Even at 81, I’m betting J. David Bamberger will be around 15 years hence, when his network of berms and water pans is finished, collecting raindrops a few at a time, funneling them into the Hill Country limestone, trickling into perched aquifers, flowing out as springs, into creeks and finally into the Colorado River as it heads downstream to urban dwellers who use far more than 50 gallons a day.

Interesting Facts

Selah, Bamberger Ranch Preserve: 2341 Blue Ridge Drive, Johnson City, TX 78636; (830) 868-2630; brp@tstar.net; www.bambergerranch.org

Bamberger Ranch is a working ranch with active cow-calf operations and hunting leases for white-tailed deer and turkey.

The scimitar-horned oryx: an endangered species no longer found in its native African countries of Niger and Chad. Bamberger Ranch has an active breeding program for the antelope; there have been as many as 120 animals on the ranch, currently there are 60.

Texas Snowbell: (see Texas Wildlife magazine, September 2008.) Bamberger holds a permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to collect seeds of the endangered plant, propagate in the ranch greenhouse facility, and restore to their respective watersheds on the Devils and Nueces rivers.

The Chiroptorium or “Bamberger’s Folly”: A manmade cave built on the ranch as a nursery shelter for Mexican free-tailed bats. Number of bats varies, estimated as many as 200,000 some years. There are about 50,000 bats this year.

The ranch hosts some 2,000 school children and area landowners each year in:

• Land Stewardship Workshops;
• Teacher Workshops and Training;
• Birding and Wildflower Field Days;
• Children Discovering Nature, and
• Informal Science Education.

The ranch has a 12-member volunteer board of directors and five fulltime staffers. In 2008, 40 volunteers served 1,100 hours. Visitors to Selah, Bamberger Ranch Preserve are primarily from the Central Texas area, as well as from the Houston and Dallas school districts.

Margaret Bamberger, J. David’s wife, died March 6, 2009. Margaret was responsible for much of the work at Selah, especially its education and outreach, and would have been especially pleased with this latest award. She is buried on Selah.

Selah: from the Hebrew, “to pause and reflect,” used frequently in the Psalms.

The late Margaret Bamberger was a driving
force on ranch education and outreach.

Exclosure

Exclosure – (ex-clo’-sure) n. – an area protected by various devices against the entrance of animals and insect pests – from Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary.

Photograph taken by Lew Hunnicutt.

In February of 2000 Dr. Lew Hunnicutt, who was then in charge of Stewardship, Education and Research for us, set into motion on Selah a research project quite ambitious for a small staff and operation such as Bamberger Ranch Preserve. The project in Lew’s own words was to “Monitor Range Condition and Trend.” It was long range, a minimum of 5 years but our expectations were 10, maybe even 20 years! In 2001 and 2002 Lew, assisted by Margaret Bamberger and a very capable volunteer, Patrick Garnett, monitored and photographed the existing exclosures. As a result of their efforts, a very good baseline set of records exist. Unfortunately, in 2003 Dr. Lew left us to return to his roots, college level teaching. The regular monitoring required of the project soon escaped our attention.

I have admonished everyone here over and over, “Never initiate an action that you are unable to sustain,” whether it is a business, a marriage, a trail or a research project. Without Lew Hunnicutt, we did not have the time or knowledge to sustain the project; although Margaret led newly hired Ranch Biologist, Steven Fulton, to the exclosures and together they recorded observations and took photographs. However before the next scheduled visits, Margaret was diagnosed with cancer and her involvement was no longer possible.

Before moving to 2009, let me describe for you just what and how and for what purpose the exclosures were installed. Once again, in Dr. Lew’s own words excerpted from his plan:

“The condition of rangeland (i.e. excellent, good, fair, or poor) is a direct result of the management practices imposed on it. Determining condition alone is not enough; we must also monitor the direction of change in condition over time (rangeland trend). Trend can be upward (positive), stable (positive or negative), or downward (negative). This dictates to us whether or not our animal management program is beneficial or detrimental to a particular range, site, pasture, etc. If detrimental (downward trend), changes can be implemented to move a site back toward an upward trend.

In order to monitor condition and trend on the ranch, 13 exclosures (more to be added in the future) were constructed in February of 2000. Each exclosure was constructed using 2, 20-foot cattle panels pulled into a circle with the overlapping ends wired together. Each exclosure was then wired to 3 t-posts driven into the ground for support. The 13 exclosures were divided among 5 different range sites (a classification of land based on soil type and properties) across the ranch in areas determined to be important from an animal use standpoint. The purpose of each exclosure is to keep out large ungulates (cattle, deer, and goats), while still allowing use by small animals (rabbits, quail, etc.). Baseline date (i.e. species composition, extent of cover versus bare ground, height of vegetation, etc.) was documented at each exclosure. A permanent photo point was also placed at each exclosure site. This photo point was simply another t-post driven into the ground in close proximity to the exclosure. To collect photo point data, a camera is placed on the top of the post with the lens pointed in the direction of the “tail-of-the-t” of the t-post. The picture is taken then the camera is turned 180 degrees to capture a photo in the opposite direction. This insures that the same areas will be photographed during each data collection period. The purpose of photo points is to look at changes in the land over time. Photos can be compared with previous years to determine the trend (upward, downward, stable) of the site. The key to using photo points is to not get in a hurry. It is impossible to draw conclusions after only a few years. It takes a minimum of 5 years and it is even better with more years worth of photo data before conclusions are drawn about the trend.

We will visit each exclosure at least twice (more as needed) during the year to document species composition, forage quantity inside and outside each exclosure, and to take photo point photos. The visits will occur during the growing (May/June) and dormant (Jan/Feb) seasons for many of the plant species found on the ranch that are of major importance to large ungulates. This data will allow us to monitor condition and trend over time. This is a long term study, basically never-ending, project.”

Over the past 5 years while rounding up cattle or guiding a hunter, Scott Grote, Ranch Operations Manager, made a few casual observations of the exclosures. Nothing was recorded.

Now fast forward through 2004-2005-2006-2007 and 2008. In late August 2009 Steven Fulton, Ranch Biologist, with me and my dog, Cory, tagging along visited, inventoried and photographed all exclosures.

Like tree rings divulge age and weather, the exclosures, along with our weather and livestock records give us valuable information.

Photograph taken by J. David in June of 2009.

See what may occur if rangeland is not managed. Grazing cattle or browsing deer are management tools. Inside the exclosure, woody species have essentially taken over. The tall plant is a Hackberry tree which will eventually provide bird food. Primary vegetation is Greenbriar, a preferred plant for deer, but currently over represented throughout the ranch. There is also a very large spreading Agarita which I would describe as somewhat invasive. There were 3 forbs: Orange Zexmania, Vetch Sp, and Shepherds Purse; some Texas Wintergrass; and K.R. Bluestem, but overall the cover inside was 65% woody with 156” height; while outside the exclosure under managed (grazed) conditions, the cover was grass.

Photograph taken by J. David.

Here on this adobe site there is not much difference inside or outside our exclosure. The ground cover is 45% inside and out of the exclousre with grass cover 6 to 8 inches inside. The grasses are primarily Seep Muhly, Little Bluestem and Tall Dropseed. Steven indentified two forbs, Queen’s Delight and Navaho Tea, and a succulent, Twisted Leaf Yucca, which hadn’t been recorded in those first three years.

Photograph taken by J. David.

Grass cover was estimated at 95% and 10 to 12 inches tall within this exclosure with K.R. Bluestem being most abundant followed by Little Bluestem, Silver Bluestem, Side Oats Grama and some Tall Dropseed. One forb, Vetch Sp, was noted as well as Greenbriar, a woody. It appeared that grass production was beginning to mulch itself.

Photograph taken by J. David.

This is on our Redlands Range site. A small, perhaps a 50 acre area in which Post and Blackjack Oak dominate. There are very few other oaks in this area. 85% cover, 6 to 8 inches high and mostly grass was identified within the exclosure. They being K.R. Bluestem, Little Bluestem and smaller amount of Sideoats and Indiangrass. There were no identifiable forbs, outside the exclosure grazing and hoof action had hampered our ability to identify anything. We noted that in 2003 this location held a nice diversity of grasses and forbs. Please read on through the next exclosure for comments about this as well as other thoughts on our exclosure project.


Photograph taken by J. David.

I was unable to identify which exclosure this was so I passed the question to Steven Fulton, our Ranch Biologist, with the comment, “Tell me about this one.” The following is Steven’s written reply:

“My first impression of this pasture as I approached this exclosure was that it is overgrazed. However, when our 30 inch deficit in rainfall of the past two years is thrown into the equation the condition of this pasture begins to make more sense. The physiological response of many of our native plants is to retreat into a state of dormancy when faced with severe drought. Our seemingly dead grass is only dead above ground; the life of the plant persists in the roots. Cattle removing dead grass blades and stems should not change the species composition of this grass community. Inside the exclosure, the dominant species is Little Bluestem. To determine the degree of overgrazing (if any) in this pasture, a return visit after a wet period is warranted. I expect to see the pasture composed mostly of Little Bluestem, meaning that overgrazing has not occurred. However, if the grass community shifts to less desirable species (threeawns) then overgrazing has occurred. Let’s pray for a wet fall and spring so I can answer this question about overgrazing.”

I’m not pleased with this, my first report on the exclosures. However I am enthusiastic about the project. It was very interesting to see the changes at each site and to look at Lew Hunnicutt and his volunteers’ comments and inventory of the plants. Now that we are back and involved with this research, I expect to be much more thorough when monitoring and collecting data. . . . . What can we say about all of this at this time?

• Well, we could tell which sites cattle preferred.


• It was wrong to conclude any site was overgrazed due to poor management since we had two serious drought years with no water in 4 pastures. So, in spite of reducing our cattle herd by 60%, cattle had to be grazed in pastures that had water.


• There was a lot of dormant grass that has begun to green up since recent rains.


• Rangeland unmanaged will result in woody species that begin taking over.


• As a precursor to climate change, we may learn which plants can adapt.


• It would be more valuable if we had checked our project in a more normal climate year, but what really is normal?

As Lew Hunnicutt said – “the project has more value if extended 20 years,” and it’s our goal to do just that.