Passport to Texas

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife and the Wildlife Restoration Program

In a state where more than ninety percent of the land is privately owned or managed, it’s essential to recognize and honor the work of private landowners for their achievements in habitat management and wildlife conservation. In Texas we present them with Lone Star Land Steward Awards.

We recognize up to ten winners in each of the eco-regions.

Linda Campbell is program director for private lands and public hunting.

We also recognize a corporate winner and one from our wildlife management associations.

In partnership with the Sand County Foundation, TPWD gives the Leopold Conservation Award to an especially deserving land steward.

And, so we have partnered with them to provide the Leopold Conservation Award in Texas to our overall statewide winner. The Leopold Conservation Award is really our highest recognition in Lone Star Land Steward.

This year’s recipient is the Selah-Bamberger Ranch Preserve. They received $10,000 and the Leopold crystal award.

Eco-region award recipients and the wildlife management association recipient received $1,000 from the Foundation.

That’s our show for today… with support from the Wildlife Restoration Program… providing funding for the Private Lands and Public Hunting Program.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife and the Wildlife Restoration Program

Texas Parks and Wildlife recognizes and honors private landowners for habitat management and wildlife conservation with the Lone Star Land Steward Awards Program.

A land steward is just somebody who just manages and takes care of their land. These folks are very committed to conservation, and maintaining healthy lands under their management.

Linda Campbell is program director for private lands and public hunting.

Each year we open the nominations in June, and anybody can nominate a landowner for recognition in Lone Star Land Steward. So we receive nominations through November. Our biologists in each of the eco-regions visit each of the nominees, and then make a recommendation to those that should be awarded the Lone Star Land Steward award for that eco-region.

Biologists visit nominated landowners who have managed their property for a minimum of 5 years, to evaluate their practices.

They talk with the landowner or the manager. They try to evaluate what types of management actions that they are undertaking. They look at their motivations and really what makes them special in terms of taking care of the resources under their control.

Passporttotexas.org has links to nomination forms.

That’s our show for today… with support from the Wildlife Restoration Program… providing funding for the Private Lands and Public Hunting Program.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

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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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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife and the Wildlife Restoration Program

Forty years ago a soil conservation service technician told David Bamberger he’d purchased the worst piece of land in Blanco County. But Bamberger had a plan.

We were wanting to demonstrate and try to develop a model that perhaps other people could follow.

Bamberger, and his late wife Margaret, created a conservation model by dedicating themselves to restoring ecological balance… including flowing water…to their fifty-five hundred acre ranch.

Let me tell you, there wasn’t a drop of water here. There wasn’t anything in the way of wildlife. I drilled 7 water wells 500 foot deep; I never got a drop of water.

With careful land management, including the removal of 3-thousand acres of “wall-to-wall” cedars and seeding the land with native grasses, the land revived.

So, over this forty years, as the habitat was improved, we got 11 springs that started to run; after 7 years we had two creeks that were running. Today we have 22 ponds or tanks that weren’t here when I came. Two of them we call lakes because of their significant size.

This 81 year old award-winning conservationist’s latest project also involves water.

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

We’ll learn more about that tomorrow.

That’s our show…made possible by a grant from the Wildlife Restoration Program…supporting habitat restoration in Texas…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife and the Wildlife Restoration Program

Texas is the only US state with suitable Ocelot habitat.

The habitat that ocelots use is extremely dense brush. The type of brush that not only can you not see through it, you can’t walk through it.

Dr. Michael Tewes (two-ES) researches wild cats with the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute.

The main problem for ocelots now is, like many other endangered species, the lack of suitable habitat. There are less than 100 of them remaining in Texas and less than 1% of Texas has that very special habitat or cover type that they use. And since most of Texas is owned and managed by private landowners and ranchers, it is in their ability to protect the habitat that is vital to the recovery of ocelots.

Fewer ocelots mean less genetic diversity.

When the populations are as small as they are in Southern Texas, almost any kind of a wildlife population will start to decrease genetic diversity and tend to go towards extinction. We have been working on revising the recovery plan and, although it’s not finalized, translocation is suggested as a tool. The genetic diversity is much greater in Mexico than it is in Texas. And by bringing them into Texas it would help alleviate some of the problems that come with genetic erosion.

That’s our show… with research and writing help from Sarah Loden… and sponsored by the Wildlife Restoration program…working to restore critical habitat for endangered species like the ocelot.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

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