Passport to Texas

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

David Bamberger knows something a lot of us don’t.

Grass on the ground is the biggest single, and the least expensive, and the quickest responding conservation measure that one can do.

That’s because the root systems hold water in the soil. After 40 years, countless man hours and tens of thousands of dollars spent reseeding with native grasses—water is plentiful on the once parched 55-hundred acre Blanco County ranch. Now Bamberger has a new project.

The idea behind this project is to capture all the water that falls here, and to keep that little perched aquifer charged up.

This perched aquifer is almost entirely on his property. Bamberger is bulldozing depressions into the tops of his limestone hills to catch rain.

And so when rain falls on the tops—and these are very shallow calcareous type soils—it quickly runs off. So, what we’re doing is we’re creating what I call water pans (I want 12 miles of those), about eight foot wide and eight to ten inches deep. When rain falls, it’ll fall into that pan and can sit there long enough to soak in.

And recharge the aquifer. The 81-year-old says the project includes plans for 26-miles of terraced rock berms on the hillsides to further slow down runoff.

When I explained this to the staff here, I said it’s going to take us 10 years. When you see it, you’re going to know why.

See for yourself. Visit the Bamberger Ranch. Learn how at passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

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