Bamberger Ranch News
It's that time again!
It's time for our Second Annual Bambergers' Baby Bat-a-thon Fundraiser! You could win a T-shirt, or your very own private Bamberger Bat Watching Party at the one and only Bamberger Ranch Chiroptorium, personally hosted by J. David Bamberger and 12 of your closest friends. Send in your pledges today!
2010 Family Picnic Fund and Friend Raising Event
We have heard your requests and we respond with: More ranch tours! More wildlife presentations! More activities for adults and children! This picnic promises to be better than all others! It is our only formal fundraising event and all proceeds directly support environmental education at the Bamberger Ranch. May 2, 2010. Join us!
Is the Drought Over?
In November's meeting, the Blanco-Pedernales Ground Water District directors decreased drought levels to Stage 1 for the Northern half of Blanco County and to Stage 2 for the southern half. The Bamberger Ranch is located in the northern half. Although BRP has received more than half of its annual rainfall since September, we remain hesitant to believe this wet weather is anything more than a temporary reprieve after 24 months of severe rainfall shortages. However, we are delighted to see Miller Creek flow again and watch Madrone Lake recover. We strongly encourage everyone in the Texas Hill Country remain vigilant about water conservation and begin thinking about long-term adaptive changes for future dry conditions.
Bat Population Status
Final official survey results from Boston University came in for August 2010, at just over 134,000 bats in residence. Because of school semesters and graduate assistants' schedules, we did not have a survey conducted in September and October, but casual staff observations seemed that the population was remarkably higher due to more intense emergences & longer emergence times (over 30 minutes). Since October, we have noted that a significant number of bats have not migrated back to Mexico, much like last year. Scientists from Boston University and U. of Tennessee are very interested in what the bats are eating during our warming winters and will be conducting winter research to see if there is a correlation with climate change. Dr. Tom Kunz predicts that bat behavior due to climate changes will become widely evident. For example, he predicts that the vampire bat, native to Southern Mexico, will soon be documented in Texas in 2 years, due to warming climates.
Our Most Recent Addition!
Thanks to a generous friend and donor, the Bamberger Ranch just installed an observatory and 14" Celestron telescope near the Center. Coincidentally, 2009 happens to be the International Year of Astronomy, celebrating Galileo's use of the first telescope 400 years ago. The staff has a large learning curve, but with great astronomy volunteers anxious to be of service, we now offer this educational opportunity to overnight groups. The first group to experience the night sky through the strong telescope was a fantastic class of 5th graders from JJ Pickle Elementary from Austin, Texas in early October.
Selah Staff Wins Award for Work with Children in Nature
West Cave Preserve presented the John Watson Award for Vision to the educational staff of the Bamberger Ranch for their long-term work with educational programs for children. Executive Director, Colleen Gardner, accepted the award in front of a crowd of over 400 environmental conservationists and educators at the Four Seasons Hotel in Austin. Colleen acknowledged Margaret Bamberger's influence and passion, and said that the staff, the volunteers, the board of directors and everyone who makes up the "Selah Family" honor Margaret's memory and JDavid's vision every single day, whether they are on the ranch or not.
Coming Soon to our web site!
We're gearing up to add valuable resource information to our website for landowners, students, teachers, and nature enthusiasts in the next several weeks. Topics will cover current bird lists, beekeeping facts, Selah's "Cedar 101", "A Day in the Life of a Student's Ranch Visit", plans and suggestions to build/design a rainfall simulator, etc. If you would like to see a specific resource material available on our website, please email us.
**Effective January 1, 2010, we will no longer use the email address of brp@tstar.net and will officially switch to selah@bambergerranch.org. This email is the appropriate avenue to make reservations, ask questions about workshops and contact the main ranch office. Both emails are currently operational.
Fall Color? Nope, It's a Drought!
The Blanco-Pedernales Groundwater District increased drought stages July 1, 2009 so that the northern portion is now in Stage 2 with the southern portion of the county elevated to Stage 3. The Bamberger Ranch Preserve is in the northern portion and has advocated for its local public officials to take this drought more seriously, and we applaud this elevation that comes so closely to the July 4th holiday weekend when fire hazards are more frequent. The ranch received a total of 14.04 inches of rainfall in 2008, and as of July 1 has accumulated 10.07 inches for 2009. It's important to note that of those numbers, from September 08 to July 09, we have only received 13.57 inches, while suffering through extreme and record-breaking temperatures. It's no wonder, then, why the trees in this photograph have begun to go dormant in late June.
In normal rainfall years, we do our part as land managers to send clean, fresh spring water into the Lower Colorado River watershed by way of Miller Creek. Even doing the best we can with the land and by conserving our domestic and livestock usage, our headwaters to Miller Creek have stopped flowing. It's imperative that city and urban dwellers do their part too to ensure our creeks, rivers and aquifers have water available for all the life forms that depend upon them.
Bat Count
May 2009 census numbers came in at 54,195 bats in the cave. We haven't received June's count yet, but bat researchers with Boston University will be returning to the ranch near the 4th of July holiday to census the current population. Casual observations indicate numbers are much higher. Stay tuned for numbers and our first annual challenge of "Bamberger's Baby Bat-A-Thon" to launch in mid-July.
Front Page Headlines!
J. David, the story of Selah and why it won the Leopold Conservation Award made it to the front page of the Austin American Statesman on June 7th. Made us all darn proud too!
Bamberger Ranch Wins Leopold Conservation Award
On May 27 in Austin, Selah-Bamberger Ranch Preserve in Blanco County received the 2009 Leopold Conservation Award for Texas from Sand County Foundation and Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, part of the department’s Lone Star Land Steward Awards program.
Lone Star Land Stewards Regional Award
New board of director and long-time educational volunteer, Ann Cook holds the award while Executive Director, Colleen Gardner (left) and J.David's personal assistant, Lois Sturm (far right) celebrate with J.David. The Bamberger Ranch Preserve was honored, along with other regional private landowners, for excellent land stewardship at a May 2008 banquet.
Solar Reading Room
In 2007 installed a solar toilet that enables us to dramatically conserve water with all the thousands of visitors we have annually. In the spring of 2009, the solar toilet was promoted heavily during our school programs, incorporating a water conservation message with math lessons. Older conventional toilets, like what are in the Center at the ranch, use between 3-5 gallons of water for each flush. Each school group that visited the ranch this spring were challenged to outdo each other by surpassing the total number of uses of the solar facility and then calculating how much water was conserved by this very easy step. Executive Director, Colleen Gardner, impressed upon each class that the "only species to ever go extinct were the ones that could not adapt to a changing environment." As the ranch continues to experience its worst drought in human memory, the solar toilet has been a critical adaptation to save water so that the staff has not had to cancel any reservations or tours due to lack of water. Being a good land steward is vital for aquifer recharge, but even with the best land management, the ranch’s main spring that supplies all the water to the Center, the Country Store and three households is now flowing at a rate of only one gallon per minute. That means for every flush of an older toilet, the spring must flow almost 5 minutes to replace that water. The winning class for the spring of 2009 was Mrs. Chiman's 4th grade class from Regents School out of Austin, who used the solar toilet 184 times in a one 24-hour period, helping save the ranch 920 gallons of water. (We weren’t entirely sure if they were all great conservationists or if we served them too much lemonade!) But all the students that have visited the ranch since February, have helped save the ranch over 5,000 gallons of water, or 83 hours of spring flow that went instead to support the flora and fauna of Selah. THANK YOU, Southwest Septic Loo, Inc. and the Still Water Foundation!
Snowbells and Selah Getting Help from Local Artist
Local artist, Lotus McElfish has created a Limited Edition Giclée Print of the Texas Snowbells. It comes in two sizes and a portion of the proceeds from the sale of the prints will be donated to help conservation efforts at Bamberger Ranch Preserve. The original painting will be in a national traveling exhibition "Endangered Species: Flora and Fauna in Peril" until 2009."
Catch Up on Your Reading
Look for recent articles about Selah's work with the Texas snowbell recovery
project. One was in the most recent Texas Parks and Wildlife Magazine and
the other appeared in the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center's quarterly
magazine the "Wildflower". Both articles were written by Melissa Gaskill,
who reported on David Bamberger's 10 years' worth of efforts to work with
private landowners to recover this endangered plant. Neither article
mentions, however, and it is important to note that because of its federal
status as endangered, it is not possible to purchase Texas Snowbell plants
or seeds commercially. The Bamberger Ranch has strict restrictions about
collecting seeds in their native watersheds out in West Texas along the
Nueces and Devils Rivers and then planting those saplings back in to the
watersheds from which the seeds came. A close cousin and uncommon but not
endangered alternative for folks wishing to have beautiful snowbell blooms
in April is the Sycamore Leaf Snowbell. The Bamberger Ranch has been
supplying some seedlings to a few local nurseries like Rainbow Gardens in
San Antonio and Watson's Tree Farm in Stonewall.
Solar Reading Room
Our most recent newsletter challenged readers to guess what this was while
it was under construction. Clues were given that it saved water and was good
for the environment. Thanks to a very generous grant from the Still Water
Foundation, this Solar Toilet was installed at Selah in the fall of 2007 and
the building construction was completed in January 2008. Southwest Septic
Loo, Inc. is out of Elgin, Texas, providing this sustainable product that,
unlike a traditional composting toilet, does not need water or electricity
to work - just a little sunlight each day to evaporate waste. The
"unveiling" of our new addition took place at our annual Volunteer
Appreciation Party. In this picture, JDavid had just cut the "ribbon" of
toilet paper and was surprised to open the door and find Margaret hiding
inside! Selah staff hopes this will be another good educational tool for
landowners building in the hill country and wishing to use sustainable
products as well as help conserve water at the ranch.
"Celebrity" Portrait
Selah was selected to be the location for an advertising photo shoot for Paul Mitchell Hair Systems and the talented photographer taking the photographs was none other than world-reknowned Annie Leibovitz. Thirty five make up artists, wardrobe assistants, photography assistants and catering personnel headquartered out of the Hes' Country Store. The "Wildlife Preserve" grassland pasture served as a backdrop for John Paul Dejoria, wife Eloise, son John Anthony and golden retriever Jake. On a very cold morning before school, as a special treat, Annie photographed the Grote family who stood in for lighting and positioning tests. Willow and Grey shared little nature treasures of turkey feathers, deer antlers and a rattlesnake rattle for Annie to take home to her 6-year old daughter in New York. View a larger image.
Silence of the Bees
Members of Selah staff are often asked to give presentations to clubs and meetings on a variety of topics, and community outreach is an important component to Selah's mission. Due to recent and heavy media attention on the disappearance of honeybees and its devastating impact on agricultural pollination, Assistant Director and staff beekeeper, Colleen Gardner has been asked frequently this year to talk on her perspective on beekeeping.
The ranch maintains honeybee hives and this winter, half of its six managed hives were lost. Colleen attributes this loss more to last year's drought - she believes her bees starved, rather than having been afflicted with some mysterious virus. Heavy rains in the spring did not appear to help, as the remaining three hives continued to struggle with honey supplies. However, it was noticed that there were many more native bees this year, most noticeably the bumblebee.
Recently there was an excellent PBS documentary, "The Silence of the Bees" that explained the possible causes of the national decline of honeybees. Visit PBS.org to see a list of things you can do to help honeybees and other vital pollinators in your neighborhood.
Public Bat Emergence Viewings
For the first time in its 9 year history, the Chiroptorium is now ready to host a public event for bat emergence viewings!
More than 38,000 bats were counted in late June and now that the babies are flying, the numbers are higher. The emergence itself seems to last about 20 minutes! Ranch staff will be on hand to interpret the show and talk about the ecology and significance of the Mexican Free-tailed bat. Transportation will be on the Bluebonnet and space is limited to 40 adults. Please use the Registration Form to reserve your spot. The emergence times will be announced when we mail you a confirmation letter and map, but plan to be at the parking area near the ranch entrance around 8:15 p.m. for check-in. Cost per person: $5.
Book Update
"Water From Stone" continues to sell and Texas A&M University Press tells us it was one of their best selling books in 2007. The paperback version was released in the spring of 2008 after many requests from universities and especially from local chapters of the Texas Master Naturalist Program who incorporated the book into their training of new volunteers.
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From Selah to Saturn
This photo of Saturn was taken at the ranch in November by Hervé
Lapuente. The picture shows more or less what you see when you
look through a medium sized telescope. Even though Saturn is about 980 million miles away from Earth, it’s giant size and its majestic rings are one of the most beautiful objects in the night sky. Note the tiny dark circle in the middle of its ring called the Cassini
division; a gap that separates its ring structure. Click the image for a bigger view.
Images of Conservation Fund Photo Contest
The Bamberger Ranch Preserve was teamed up in a random lottery drawing with professional nature photographer, Jeremy Woodhouse. Jeremy and the Bamberger Ranch staff were faced with the challenge of creating a 75-image nature photography portfolio to be submitted in a contest of 18 other landowner/photographer teams. The contest began on April 1 and ended April 30th. Teams competeed for cash prizes, but ultimately the non-profit organization, Images for Conservation Fund (ICF) hopes to create an industry that incentivizes land owners to manage open space for wildlife.
The Bamberger Ranch Preserve/Jeremy Woodhouse Team tied for 8 and 9th place! Please enjoy the beautiful photographs that Jeremy captured during his month at Selah.
Texas Environmental Excellence Award!
We are very proud to announce that we won this year’s Texas Environmental Excellence Award in the category of Education. This award is sponsored by the TEEA program of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality agency. Staff accepted the award at a TCEQ banquet on May 10. BRP was judged by criteria such as "Do we encourage other environmental efforts?" and "Do we serve as a model for other efforts?" We believe that we are not only leading by example but also prioritizing education of conservation of natural resources - and changing lives in the process. We are honored by this recognition.
Watch the KEYE News Austin story featuring Selah.
Art for the Oryx
Artist Kathleen Marie has created a Limited Edition fine art print of the Oryx and 50% of the profits from the purchase of this print go to help fund the Bamberger Ranch Species Survival Program.
Seeing Bats in a New Light
Dr. Tom Kunz of Boston University (left) and Dr. Gary McCracken from University
of Tennessee (right) demonstrate the infrared camera equipment used to
help count bats at the Chiroptorium in July 2004. On the color spectrum,
blue is the coolest, and white is the warmest. Note that Dr. Kunz’ nose
is the warmest object in the photo! Staff Colleen Gardner and her husband
Scott are in the background. Coming soon: infrared image of bat emergence.
Read more about the Bat Cave.