50 Years Ago, This Was a Wasteland. He Changed Everything | Short Film Showcase

Hey [Music] fifty years ago you couldn't hardly walk through this place it was wall-to-wall brush there wasn't any grass and wasn't any water nobody wanted [Applause] oh he didn't find his dog in the United States of America hey I'm Texas - well I was born in Ohio born into poverty to be honest about it he lived out in the country amongst the Amish people so I really got my life example set for me by my own mother that's where my love of the natural world came from I never inherited a nickel that I inherited a love the natural world in a respect respect for it when I get out of the University I took a job I sold vacuum cleaners or guitar I went into the fast food business I've teamed up with the young man bill church and it was church's fried chicken and we built that company up to over 1,600 stores and we sold and with that capital I was able to come here and begin my work on cela member dorrance preserve my objective was to take the worst piece of land I could possibly find in the hill country of Texas and begin a process of restoration that would change it back to be one of the best and that has happened right here by habitat restoration by working with Mother Nature and set it against her and that's what we're all about 46 years ago not a drop of water seven water wells were drilled 500 foot deep not a one produced any water the top 125 foot of these hills looks like this said words limestone when the driller drilled all goes well for me he said Bamberger when one place up here on the top my bit dropped 40 foot he said you got a cavern under there's like an auditorium the only thing about it was 46 years ago it had no water in it it was dry it was dry because the water that was coming in was running off as opposed to sinking him when I came here all of the little holes and all of that limestone or just as dry as one of holding in my hand now what happened we replaced that condition with this condition two and a half years after we began the first spring came to life as we continued on another spring showed up we got up to where we have a level we're in rider contract came out of all of that holes in that perched aquifer like that that's where it come from it was stored in the earth and all because of one thing this one and I'm telling you I'm going to show you the greatest conservation tool ever made and everything I talked about could not have happened without grass the hill country is discovered with woody species primarily it's cedar we took out a great portion of it here on the ranch we were discovered with it we had no grass when we took out the cedar and spread native grass seeds and it began to grow rainfall then percolated into the earth because of the root system of grass going down water percolates and it fills up your aquifer until the aquifer is full and when it's full it has to come out somewhere and they call that a spring that spring supplied water for all the nature critters plus from all the families that live here and even send water downstream to the city of Austin what is it cost our governments and governments all around the world they're spending millions and millions of dollars doing all kind of thing dams and reservoirs and pipelines and all of this can be done by you and I we don't have to have government the can expect government to do it all anyway but if we do have some contravention to ethics the results from my modeling now do we see that kind of erosion year I'm telling you truthfully I've seen this property and the experiences that people have here change lives what is Oh beautiful thank you so much what the sealer mean when I was younger I discovered in the Psalms the word Selah it means to stop to pause to look around you and reflect on everything you see you [Music] to me that's like Thoreau was to Walden Pond gives us a chance to say what's my duty as a Stewart of this ranch land and I believe it's to take care of it and to share it and if you don't share what you have you're going to live a lonely life [Music] that is a necessary ingredient for every human being that we need to catch up and live amongst mother nature and learn to appreciate her for what she really is I've given this land to a foundation it will go on in perpetuity it'll never be any different than you see it today when I leave this world that's what I want as part of my legacy [Music] [Music] you you [Music] [Music]

Channel: National Geographic

Views: 2,230,177

Rating: 4.9700065 out of 5

Keywords: wasteland, desert, texas, church's chicken, fast food, CEO, david bamberger, aquifers, land management, conservation, biodiversity, wildlife, overgrazed, Short film showcase, national geographic, nat geo, natgeo, animals, science, explore, discover, survival, nature, culture, documentary, Showcase, short films, filmmakers, wildlife films, films, PLivjPDlt6ApRiBHpsyXWG22G8RPNZ6jlb, PLivjPDlt6ApTjurXykShuUqp7LQcj9s8s, PLivjPDlt6ApTDlm7OufY6HAzNmFAqxWSo

Id: ZSPkcpGmflE

Length: 8min 17sec (497 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 24 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/oldcreaker]

Wow - I have small book, "The Man Who Planted Trees" by Jean Giono. About a man who reforested a desolate area on his own and brought it back to life. Many people thought the story was real, but it turned out to be fictional (still worth the read, though, it's inspiring).

How nice to see another story like this that is actually true.

[u/jimmboilife]

I really hope everybody watches the part where he talks about groundwater.

It really is astounding how much of an impact vegetation has on hydrology. Without it, you have mostly runoff. With it, you have mostly inflitration (and subsequently the streams are less flashy, flow more consistently and are a lot more clear).

[u/phaigot]

Wonderful! What a great story.

I had never heard that word Selah before, it's very nice. Reminds me a little of the word sonder.

[u/breville135]

Society prospers when old men plant trees who's shade they'll never sit in.

[u/miltonjackson]

When he took the Plastic bag i thought he is going to present some pseudo science device. I was pleased it was just grass.

[u/bluegreyscale]

This guy reminds me of the ecopoets in Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy.

Basically hermits live in the martian wilderness away from the big settlements taking care of a small part of land. That allows them to give that area their undivided attention and help the ecosystem along in ways that aren't possible on a larger/industrial scale.

Great series by the way, I very much recommend it to anyone interested in hard sci-fi.

[u/ShrutiandSpice]

Bamberger

If you're gonna specialise in fast food then why go for fried chicken with a name like that?

[u/Mortenusa]

This is beautiful.

[u/AngelSkyes]

Oh my god, this is so surreal. I grew up on this ranch, and my dad played a large role in the restoration. To see my childhood "home" on reddit (of all places) is so cool! Please feel free to AMA if you have any questions for a country bumpkin that grew up here.

Edit: Not 100% sure, but I think that's my dad on the bulldozer @ 1:54.

Edit 2: Sorry about the slow responses, was in class for 4 hours..