The Story of Selah, Bamberger Ranch Preserve by Jeffrey Greene, Illustrations by Margaret Bamberger
Here is your chance to get to know a man thousands of Texans and people in the zoo and land conservation business have had the pleasure of meeting, J. David Bamberger. Whether it’s at a business meeting, watching him defend environmental practices at an unfriendly congressional hearing, or touring his ranch to see the bison – beef cattle crosses Grassmaster herd, a highly managed Scimitar-horned oryx herd enrolled in the Species Survival Plan, his manmade bat cave, sparkling spring fed creeks or Golden-cheeked Warbler habitat, time spent with Bamberger is not to be forgotten. His story is one of someone willing to use the money he made from taking a fried chicken stand from a parking lot to the national stage to create businesses that are good for the land, and turn some very beat up, dried out ranch land into a preserve with running springs. Whether you like reading a good story about an interesting person, or are curious about land stewardship, you’ll enjoy reading J. David Bamberger’s story.
From the publisher: “Award-winning author Jeffrey Greene provides a portrait, by turns lyrical and provocative, of J. David Bamberger's unlikely transformation from first, a vacuum cleaner salesman, then to co-founder and CEO of Church's Fried Chicken, to an internationally recognized conservationist. In fact, Greene tells two integrally related stories: the evolution of one man's business sense, applying profit incentives to land restoration and nature conservancy; and the creation of a Texas Hill Country preserve where he effectively demonstrates his own principles.
Growing up in rural Ohio during the Great Depression and World War II, Bamberger learned at an early age to shun waste, grow food productively, and admire the Amish for living in harmony with the land. His mother taught him to love the natural world and gave him a book that would set the course for his life: Pleasant Valley, by Louis Bromfield, a visionary American advocate for land restoration. Inspired by his new role model, Bamberger would say, "If I ever make money, I want to do what Bromfield did."
After finding that financial success, Bamberger bought what he describes as ""the sorriest piece of land in Blanco County"" and entered upon his decades-long effort to restore the ecological balance of 5,500 acres that had been virtually destroyed by more than a century of misuse. Naming his preserve Selah—from the Old Testament term meaning ""pause and reflect""—Bamberger dedicates himself and his resources to protecting species and educating school children, conservation groups, government officials, and everyone else who will listen to his central message, delivered with evangelical zeal: We must take care of the earth, and anyone can help.
Today, David and his wife, Margaret, have received many wards, and he has been featured in The New Yorker, in Audubon, and on CNN and network news. But until now, no one has fully told the story of how a man with vision transformed a place—and in doing so, transformed himself.
Cloth, 6x9 inches, 232 pp., 20 line art, 1 map. Bib. Index, May 2007
