Way back in 1969, a man by the name of J. David Bamberger bought land in the Texas Hill Country with the sole purpose of rehabilitating it through hardwork and determination. Today the 5,000-acre Selah, Bamberger Ranch Preserve near Johnson City is an extraordinary habitat restoration case study. It serves as a touchstone and reference for similar efforts across the region—and beyond.
With an eye to documenting Bamberger’s decades-long conservation work alongside seasonal shifts visible on the property, photographers Rusty Yates and David K. Langford collaborated with Andrew Sansom (director of Texas State University’s The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment) to create a new large-format book.
Seasons at Selah: The Legacy of Bamberger Ranch Preserve (Texas A&M University Press, 2018) is a stunning collection of words and images. All together the photographs, text, and index top out at 246 pages, making for a hefty coffee table book. Carter P. Smith, executive director of Texas Parks and Wildlife, provides the introduction, offering his insights into the rancher’s personality. He writes, “A natural-born raconteur with the gift of gab and a work and conservation ethic that appears to know no bounds, Bamberger is a tireless ambassador for the health of the land and all that comes with, on, and under it.”
There is an element of the “hero’s journey” here, suggested not only in Smith’s introduction and Sansom’s text but also in the photographs, especially those in the first chapter documenting what the land looked like in 1969. Part of the legend that is Selah centers on Bamberger’s claim that his work restored aquifers and brought water to the surface again via springs. For outsiders, the story frankly has an element of the tall tale to it. And yet looking at the before and after photographs in Seasons at Selah, it’s hard to deny that Bamberger’s efforts proved invigorating to flora and fauna alike.
The book itself is suitable for any fan of the Hill Country, be they an old-timer or a would-be visitor to the region. There’s a pleasing mix of detail shots and inviting landscapes, breathtaking views that beg one to step into the page. The seasonal shifts captured by the photographers are engaging as well. Spring’s vital earnestness gives way to the bright glow of summer, fall’s changes in color, and the moody mists of winter. One especially beautiful photo—a landscape shot of native grasses enrobed in sleet along a fence row—evokes a sense of ruggedness so familiar to those of us who have spent time on Hill Country ranch land during a frigid winter’s night, awakening to find a land frozen momentarily in time.
Seasons at Selah is a wonderful presentation of Bamberger’s labor as well as the contributions made to his cause over the years by staff and volunteers at the Bamberger Ranch Preserve and the property’s Margaret Bamberger Research and Education Center. Thanks to their collective efforts the land is a crucial resource and learning center, one that hopefully will encourage environmental stewardship in current and future generations.
Pamela Price is the founder of TheTexasWildflower.com. She’d like to credit Patrick Heath Library in Boerne for the loan of their copy for this review.
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