This Blog Will Continue

A note to our readers from David Bamberger: This blog will continue, and you may expect the first of the new postings next Monday, March 23. Without a doubt, the style and content will change somewhat, but it will continue to tell the story of the Bamberger Ranch Preserve.

A Message from Margaret

The following was written by Margaret Campbell Bamberger the day she received the diagnosis of Stage IV lung cancer, Friday, September 24, 2004.

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I sit, feeling alone and cut off from God. I close my eyes and let my mind wander.

Why? Why me?

I try to remove my close perspective and move out to where I can feel the life force around me. I think of all the life, past, current, seen and unseen, human and not human . . . each individual going about the business of living—and dying. Which is part of the same cycle. I am comforted by this and again I try to quit thinking and let my mind wander. I think of all the healthy cells in my body and then of the cancer cells—all made of the materials of my body, the stuff of “me.” Why the difference? I imagine all the worldly influences accumulated in my cells in 65 years. Chemicals, viruses, radiation, some of it natural, some manmade, some ubiquitous, some I’m personally responsible for. All of it, carried in the memories of my various cell lines, all are now are “me.”

I travel in my mind and see the trillions of atoms that make up my cells, all of it, every atom, born in the guts of a large star, either during its life or in the explosion of its death. “I am stardust.” A phrase I’ve heard before but now I feel every atom of every part of the earth, living or non-living is stardust, and of course that includes me, my healthy cells and my cancer.

God, no matter how we see him or her, is the creative force of the universe—which includes the galaxies, the stars, the planets, the earth and everything, every life form—all is God. I feel full of God, full of love, full of peace and grateful for my life which must end in death, a good thing, a natural thing, a God thing.

I will stay here as long as I am able, and I pray it is a long time—but however long or short, I am so grateful for this wonderful life, this gift of God. I have so many wonderful loving people around me: blood relatives, ranch family, and all the friends of a lifetime. To all, thank you and I love you.

Margaret Bamberger, 1938-2009

Margaret Campbell Bamberger passed away quietly in her sleep this morning, Friday, March 6, 2009. Early Wednesday, shortly after completing an exhausting month of cancer treatments, she fell asleep, never to awaken. A green burial will soon take place on the ranch that she loved so well. Attendance will be limited to immediate family and the ranch family.

Margaret was born December 13, 1938 in New Orleans. Over her seventy years, she was twice a wife, three times a mother, once a laboratory technician, repeatedly a crusader in environmental causes, periodically an artist shown and published, occasionally a writer, routinely an educator, and always a warm and generous friend to too many people to count.

She met and married J. David Bamberger in the early 1990s, and became an equal partner in the ongoing creation of the Bamberger Ranch Preserve as we know it today. She is credited with creating the ranch's educational programs and giving the ranch its credibility as an educational institution. The ranch became a routine destination for everything from groups of elementary school students, to university researchers. She won national awards for conservation, and had university awards, and even a middle-school greenhouse, dedicated to her. It was her idea to add the observation room to the design of "Bamberger's Folly", the largest artificial bat roost and observation facility ever created. With David's son, she named the structure, and in doing so officially added a new word to the English language: "chiroptorium".

She is survived by her husband J. David, sister Mary Greene of Paris, France, daughters Margie Crisp and Frances Sharp, son Chris Campbell, and numerous grandchildren as well as the thousands of people she touched over a richly-lived lifetime.

Margaret Bamberger was not merely a good person, but a person who did good. Thus her loss is felt doubly. There is, nonetheless, consolation to be found in the quality of her work - it is too good to be lost with her. The education programs she set in motion will be continued and grown by the dedicated members of the current ranch family, and those who will, in time, follow them. Margaret's impact will thereby be felt for generations to come, like the ever expanding ripples from a pebble dropped into cool, clean waters.

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If you'd like to help Margaret's legacy live on, the family suggests contributions be made to the Margaret Bamberger Education Fund which she established in 2007. Donations can be mailed to:

Bamberger Ranch Preserve
2341 Blue Ridge Drive
Johnson City, TX 78636.

Arranging Tours of the Bamberger Ranch Preserve

In the past, groups requesting tours of the ranch have sometimes contacted Margart Bamberger directly. Instead, we'd now like those requests to be directed to Colleen Gardner, whose email address is: brp(at)tstar(dot)net. Thanks, and enjoy the tours.

Margaret's Medical Status

Chris Johnson here, with an update on Margaret Bamberger's health:

Margaret Bamberger has been receiving radiation therapy for brain cancer all month. She had an MRI on the 17th which showed no change in the lesions. So, the good news is that they haven't grown. Also, she's had no seizures, no headaches, and she feels great.

This week, she'll continue the radiation treatment, after which they'll finish-up with three days of higher-dose treatment. Once that's done, her condition will be re-evaluated, and future treatments will be planned accordingly.

Because a month of daily cancer treatment can't have been any fun, there was a large party in Margaret's honor this afternoon at the Benini Sculpture Ranch, kindly hosted by the Beninis. Margaret was understandably tired, but had no trouble coping with being the center of attention for five hours. She was smiling, chatting, and hugging anyone who came within range the whole time.

I'm sure she'd appreciate kind thoughts from her readers. Please feel free to leave them here as comments.

MORE IMAGES FROM 2008

I didn't use all the pictures I'd gotten together in a folder for the post IMAGES FROM 2008 on January 8th, so I'm going to put together another post of images from last year and call it MORE IMAGES FROM 2008.

I like this picture of the Scimitar-horned oryx, that was taken last winter. Their pasture looks very dry. With their elegent horns, they really are handsome critters, and a pleasure to watch, especially when they run together.

This hairy jumping spider looks like it has a green mustache. I was pleased to get such a clear picture of a critter that was less than a centimeter across. Check out the large version by clicking on the picture. How many eyes can you see?

Even though the lake is very low, it still looked beautiful on the afternoon in November that I walked around the lake. I love the rusty red color that the Bald Cypress trees turn before their leaves fall off.

These earth balls poke their way up through the caliche soil along the road side, and it is only when they are on the surface that you can see that they are a hard fungus, with dark, very fine spores inside.
Because we had such a severe drought, we expected our maples to turn brown and drop their leaves. What a surprise to have them turn beautiful colors and remind us of trips to Lost Maples State Park.

The big-tooth Maples were stunning this year. I was sure that with the very dry year, the maple leaves would just turn brown and fall off. What we saw were beautiful colors from lemon yellow to deep red. The Maple Trail reminded me of the Lost Maples Park. When I first came to Selah in 1994 David was planting the maples on the trail, and they were all pretty small. But David knew that someday it would be magnificent, and this year was amazing.

This beautiful little "Rough green snake" is a favorite of kids. It doesn't try to bite, it calms down quickly, and tolerates a lot of handling.


One of Cory's favorite pastimes is "mouse hunting". He listens and sniffs, and if his ears or nose tell him "mouse" he leaps through the tall grass. We've always assumed that he would never catch a mouse, but the other day he was seen running across the grassy area to the south of the ranch house with something small in his mouth. He ran over to an area with soft soil, dug a hole, dropped the mouse in it, and covered it up. Wow, were we surprised!

Aiden has stolen many hearts in his 3+ years, and one of his most ardent fans is a former Selah intern, Kim Kennard.

Mary Kay Sexton has been a huge help to the ranch education programs in many ways. But perhaps her biggest contribution has been with the Bamberger Nature Adventure Camp held in the early summer each year. She leads the kids on field trips, and with her fun-loving and enthusiastic enjoyment of the outdoor world inspires us all to learn and discover more. She is a treasure! Steven gives her a hug during the Volunteer Appreciation Day party.

After the party we all went out to the new water feature and sand play area at the back of the Center. Chris Johnson had two Eastern Screech Owls to release that Sallie Delahoussaye had taken care of as they recovered from non-fatal injuries. Before being released, Sallie has them in a flight cage where she releases live mice for the owls to practice their hunting skills on. They must be able to catch prey in order to survive in the wild.

For years Chris has had a video camera in an owl box with a pair of owls that raised chicks to adulthood, which he made available to the public over the website. Because of this interest in owls, he knows a lot about them, and gave an excellent, and entertaining program about them before the release.

Chris explains that owls have huge eyes that are fixed in their head and in order to look around they have to swivel their head from side to side. They can't turn their heads around in a complete circle, but they can turn far enough that they can look behind them. Their eyes also have lots of cells that are very sensitive to low light, and that helps them to see in places that are almost dark to us. When it was time to release the owls, Chris climbed up a ladder and put them in an owl box, which they may live in at least for a while.

After the owl releases we all went to the new "Solar Toilet". It doesn't use water to flush, but instead uses heat to evaporate liquid, and sterilize the waste material. We have to be very careful not to waste water here because the amount of spring water available is limited, especially during such a dry year. The "ribbon" for the "ribbon cutting" ceremony is actually toilet paper, and Colleen planned a joke, which was that I would be inside and at some point I would come out and say,"What is all the noise around here?"

J David talked about the new "Solar Out-house" and why we had decided to build one, and remember, he didn't know I was inside. So, at the point that he opened the door, he was startled to see me and started laughing. Then we were all laughing!

Another of our regular and very important volunteers is Jessie, who is a wonderful birder, and an amature astronomer. He has built his own telescope and comes to the ranch and gives a sky and star program to 5th grade students when they are here.

Ervey belongs to the Austin Astronomy Club, and when we have a large class he is one of the members that brings out his very fine telescope and sets it up so that the students can see some of the wonderful sights in the night sky.

Our volunteers are so important for our programs. They not only teach facts, they inspire us all to share our knowledge and enthusiasm which is an invaluable gift.

I BELIEVE THAT THE GIFT OF VOLUNTEERING IS IMPORTANT FOR BOTH THE GIVER AND THE RECEIVER.

IMAGES FROM 2008

In this busy holiday season I've gotten behind in my promise (to myself) to publish a new post each week. The last post was published on December 18. (Whoops! - Over 2 weeks late now).

Anyway, I've taken thousands of pictures, and I decided that I would make this post a series of images, all taken in 2008.

Colleen Gardner, our Executive Director, works and tends the bee hives, and also teaches students about them. Bees are adapted to flowers, and flowers are designed to be used by bees. They provide landing pads and sometime have ultraviolet colors which the bees can see that show the bee exactly where it needs to go to get to nectar.

One of the teaching tools that Colleen uses is a portable case for a frame from a hive. This student is taking advantage of the opportunity to take a really close look. It is fascinating to see such an intimate view of a bee's life in a hive.

In the early spring on windy days we get some wonderful cloud formations.

One of the first Texas early spring wildflowers I learned was this one-- Henbit. It is common, but so small that you can miss it if you don't look closely.

Agarita bushes bloom very early, and sometimes you smell their sweet purfume before you notice the blooms, which are very small.

I can't resist taking pictures of beautiful sunset skies.

When the bats arrive in March, we try to see the first emergences from the Chiroptorium. Aiden is with me and Lois, waiting and hoping to see bats.

Now that we can put the small Texas Snowbells in the greenhouse, we sometimes see a tiny plant sporting a beautiful bloom. Most plants don't bloom until they are several years old and 12 to 18 inches tall.

In the winter and early spring months birds flock to our feeders, especially finches, including 2 kinds of goldfinches, the American Goldflinch and the Lesser Goldfinch. One of my favorite finches to watch is the Pine Siskin (Carduelis pinus). They are gregarious and there are lots of interactions between them on the feeders. The seed they like is thistle, which is a small seed, and the feeder in this photo is a thistle sock, which has a weave which is tight enough to keep the seed from spilling out, and open enough that a finch can reach in and pick out seeds.

Steven and son, Aiden sit on the rail of the front porch of the Center, on sunny day in January. I'm told that Aiden looks just like his dad did when he was Aiden's age.

Late in January there was an Arts Encounter at the Benini Sculpture Ranch. Inside their large gallery there is room for lots of guests. Interesting artists and other people are invited to give a talk about their work. I have heard fascinating talks, seen slide shows, and met many interesting people at these events which are held every 2 months. This was taken on January 26th of 2008.

One of the speakers on Jan. 26, 2008 was Dr. Jose Lopez. As an oncologist his specialty is cancer and treating cancer. He has been my cancer doctor since September of 2004. I can thank Dr. Lopez for the 4 years and 4 months I have enjoyed since then! His subject that day was "The history of cancer". Cancer has been recognized by physicians for a long time. However, in recent history treatments were discovered that reduced cancer growth and in some cases wiped the growths out.

Sculpture, "Eternal Flame" is by Rick Cunningham (1/26/08).
Out on the ranch are sculptures, some in metal, and some of wood, plastic or stone. You can view the website for the Sculpture ranch from this link.

The very large sculpture above is by Dr. Marshall Cunningham, and is titled "The Constant Battle". The rusty red surface fits well into the Hill Country setting. The warrior with a sword in one hand and a writhing serpent in the other represents the battles people face with their illnesses and physical problems. For some, the battle is short and it is either won or lost. For others, the battle continues for years, decades or a lifetime.

Inside the gallery are paintings and sculptures, by Benini and other artists. The circular painting above is by Benini, who creates images like this one that are flat, but look 3-dimensional. For more information about his art see his site.

On this day, when my son and two grandsons, Eli (redhead) and Gabriel visited the ranch there was still water in the creek. Now there is less water and much of it is dry.

When I worked at the Austin Nature Center, we talked with the kids about reading animal signs, which include tracks and scat. Eli had looked at racoon scat (which had lots of seeds in it), and coyote scat (distinct because it has fur in it). In this photo, Eli is goofing around and making fun of his grandma Margaret, by dramatically asking, "And who do you think made this scat?" For those who may not recognize it, it is cow poop!

During the summer of 2007 J David and I traveled to Canada, Montana, Wyoming and Utah. While in Montana we met a wonderful singer and songwriter Steve Nelson. If you have watched Winnie the Pooh on TV then you have heard the song he wrote for the theme. He also wrote "Songbird" which Barbara Streisand recorded in the 1978 album, "SONGBIRD", which was a huge hit for her. In January of '08 Steve came to Texas to visit. Many happy hours were spent in front of our fireplace listening to him play and sing his songs.

On a very cold day in early January Sallie Delahoussaye and Chris Johnson came out with 2 Screech Owls to release. This Eastern Screech Owl was anxious to be free and let us know that he didn't appreciate being held.

Ryan Kingsbury, a bright young man who loves birds and nature was an intern here for many months. He left to go to St. George Island in Alaska. There the Earthwatch Institute did a fur seal study. Ryan wrote a blog and there are wonderful pictures and interesting information about the study and his time there.

In January each year we have a celebration honoring our wonderful volunteers. Volunteers help with programs, do physical work, plant snowbells with J. David, and work at the Bamberger Nature Adventure Camp (see post for this blog on June 29th and July 2nd in 2008). Above is Colleen with Chance and Josh Ruder, who have been either campers or Junior councilors at the camp since it was started in June of 2004. They received the TCEQ Environmental Excellence Award for Youth this past year.

Ann Cook gets a hug from "Big Steve". She is one of the volunteers that helps with students. We sometimes have large classes, and it would be difficult to manage them and teach them without our volunteers.

Marsha May who is a wonderful birder has been organizing our bird census days (3 a year) for many years. With volunteer birders help we now have a long list of birds seen on the ranch (over 200) and have added many new ones to our list.

Lynda DeGroot is a member of the Central Texas Trail Tamers and she has brought groups of strong willing volunteer workers to the ranch for years to help us with projects. They have put in new trails, installed steps on steep trails, and have recently been helping J.David with his project to maximize the retention of water on our hilltops so that our aquifers are recharged and our springs keep flowing.