People Stories

Meet the visionary who restored 5,500 acres of wrecked Texas land to paradise

Fifty years ago, the wildly inspiring David Bamberger bought the worst land he could find with the aim of bringing it back to thriving life. Although born into poverty, he became an immensely successful fast food tycoon before cashing in his chips and assuming the role of Totally Inspiring Steward Of The Land. It’s not the storyline one might expect from somebody who started a fried chicken empire – but it’s a beautiful story.

After selling his company, Bamberger took to the hills to begin his work. “My objective was to take the worst piece of land I could possible find in the Hill Country of Texas and begin the process of restoration,” he says in the short film Selah: Water from Stone. He settled upon a wasteland of 5,500 overgrazed acres of “wall-to-wall brush, there wasn’t any grass, there wasn’t any water, nobody wanted it,” he says – and thus, Selah, Bamberger Ranch Preserve was born. By “working with Mother Nature instead of against her,” he says, he was able to bring it back to beautiful, thriving life. In the film below, Bamberger talks about the preserve’s name, Selah, […]

More about restoration work:

Water Warriors and Other People Stories

Summary
Title
The visionary who restored 5,500 acres of wrecked Texas land to paradise
Description

David Bamberger bought the worst land he could find with the aim of bringing it back to thriving life. Although born into poverty, he became an immensely successful fast food tycoon before cashing in his chips and assuming the role of Totally Inspiring Steward Of The Land.

Recent Posts

Well Data Explorer: Visualizing Contaminated Groundwater in 3D

Map: A 3D view with basemap transparency adjusted to show underground wells, with filtering by…

3 hours ago

California’s Plans for Slowing Climate Change Through Nature-Based Solutions

As part of SF Climate Week, KQED’s Danielle Venton sat down with the California Secretary…

1 day ago

‘More litter in Tahoe than meets the eye’

JT Chevallier and JB Harris operate BEBOT during a demo on Tallac Beach, June 15,…

1 day ago

Biden administration announces new wetlands protections after Supreme Court decision

The Biden administration announced new protections for millions of acres of wetlands, which are essential…

2 days ago

It’s Raining Stormwater NOVs in California

Photo: Adobe Stock / Romolo Tavani For many California industrial facilities, above average rainfall brought 60-day…

3 days ago

Nature-based solutions: California wants to harness more than half its land to combat climate change by 2045.

U.S. Forest Service firefighters in the Angeles National Forest burn piles of forest debris below…

4 days ago