Work Day at Bamberger Ranch Preserve - Oct. 25, 2008

On a beautiful & warm October day, seven Trail Tamers, plus two other volunteers, headed out to the Bamberger Ranch Preserve to begin working on a new water conservation project that the owner, J. David Bamberger, has created. We drove up to the top of one of the many plateaus on the preserve where a bulldozer had scraped up dirt and rock following the contours of the plateau. Our task was to rake the dirt and rock into long, high berms on the downslope side so that when it rains, the water would be stopped from running down the slope and carrying soil with it. The idea is to "trap" the water so it will soak in and percolate through the honeycombed rock in order to recharge the "hanging aquifers" located on the preserve. Everything about the preserve is unique and these aquifers are simply another thing that's different.

We completed a lot more work than was anticipated and when it was time to go, we drove back down to the old general store for a feast of tamales, beans, chips & salsa plus an assortment of cold beverages. When we were through eating, a few people left but those of us that remained were treated to a trip to the man-made bat cave that was built by Mr. Bamberger. It now has about 250,000 bats residing in it and some of them were still there and hadn't migrated yet! We got a really close-up look at them when Mr. Bamberger decided to take us inside the cave (he calls it the Chiroptorium). That was quite an experience! Not sure I want to do that again, though! I'm not one who thinks that bats get caught in your hair, so that didn't bother me even though I could hear them flying close to me, but standing in a thick mat of bat guano and knowing that flesh-eating cave beetles were everywhere DID bother me! That's because those beetles can devour a dead bat (or any other dead creature) in a matter of minutes, so it gave me a creepy feeling and I didn't stand in one spot for very long! A couple of the ladies went back outside after only a few minutes so they missed most of the fun. Oh, well. It was a treat to be shown something like this because it's been a decades-long effort on the part of Mr. Bamberger to try and attract bats to this cave and hope that they would stay. It looks like he has finally succeeded!

My thanks to fellow Trail Tamers..Jerry Levenson, Martha Davies, Gardner Ayers, Chuck Kichline, Mary Arnett and Martha Spetseris; plus volunteers, Gina Meagher and Bill Marsh, for all the work that was completed that day.