Bastrop, Texas Events, News & Stories

A leader of the first wave of environmental activists and agitators in Bastrop County beginning in the late 1970s, Margaret Campbell Bamberger, 70, died at her Bamberger Ranch home near Johnson City on March 6, after a struggle of more than four years with lung cancer.

She was much more than an activist. She nurtured her own three children and many others over the decades. “She was like a second mother to me,” said one of my sons, Reuben McAuley, who came to know her in the mid 1970s. She was also a gifted photographer, an artist, acclaimed teacher and generous soul.

When Lower Colorado River Authority officials announced plans (early in 1979, I believe) to lease almost 6,500 acres at Camp Swift to strip mine deposits of soft coal for electric generating fuel, Margaret was among the first handful of local folks to step forward as volunteers to organize opposition efforts either to halt the project or minimize its poetntially harmful effects. That early group, known as the Central Texas Lignite Watch, was the mother of later efforts on other environmental fronts including work undertaken by the Bastrop County Environmental Network, Neighbors for Neighbors and related organizations.
When LCRA plans to mine Camp Swift came to grief about two years later–for reasons only partly related to CTLW efforts–the agency shifted its focus to creating an even larger mining effort in Fayette County, but Margaret and her colleagues followed that plan as well and quickly stirred up local opposition there to reinforce the critics. By that time CTLW had also linked up with environmental activists in Austin who helped persuade that city council to back away from an increasingly complex, costly and environmentally questionable enterprise.

Also during the early 80s other facets of Margaret’s talent began to emerge, including photography and drawing, along with a deepening understanding of the natural world and how it works. Most early issues of the Bulletin of the Sayersville Historical Society, a local history group from central Bastrop County, were illuminated by her work, including technical illustrations such as prehistoric stone projectile points and later archaeological artifacts from the area. Perhaps she reached her largest audience with the illustrations for Water from Stone, The Story of Selah, Bamberger Ranch Preserve (Texas A&M University Press, 2007). Margaret married J. David Bamberger in 1998 and spent the rest of her life with him at the ranch preserve near Johnson City. She also produced a wonderful series of hand-colored prints based on many of those same illustrations.

Ave atque vale, Margaret. We will not see your like again.

Her last public appearance, I believe, was Feb. 22 at a reception in her honor at a gallery and sculpture ranch just west of Johnson City. It was thronged with friends and family, including a number from the Bastrop area. A memorial service in her honor was also held in Austin on March 28

She is survived by her husband; a sister, Mary Greene; three children, Chris Campbell of Austin, Margie Crisp and Franny Sharp of Elgin; and a number of grandchildren.

Bastrop, Tx–Despite the presence of a generally hostile crowd March 18, the board of the Lost Pines Groundwater Conservation District adopted a committee recommendation on what groundwater levels in Bastrop and Lee County should look like in 2060. Two board members voted against the proposal.

One of them, Ann Mesrobian, said she favored further talks with environmental groups, including The Sierra Club and Environmental Defense, before a vote.

Groundwater district staff and consultants defended the committee proposal, saying any defects can be remedied in the future, especially as better data and models for estimating the effects of permitted pumping become available. The planning and goal setting for future groundwater conditions must occur every five years, said consultant Katie Kaighin.

Steve Box of Bastrop-based Environmental Stewardship argued that current tools exist to evaluate the likely impact of current and proposed groundwater withdrawal on the Colorado River and its tributaries, a contention rejected by the board’s hydrology consultant Dr. Robert Kier. Current planning tools are largely worthless for estimating the contribution of groundwater to the flow of rivers and tributaries, he said.

In previous statements Box has charged that the current board proposal could result in irreparable hardmto the Colorado River in groundwater flows into the stream subside because of future pumping.

Kier said Texas laws regulating the use of groundwater are utterly different, and based on different principles, from laws governing the use of surface water in lakes, rivers and other streams.

Once the board has completed its recommended future conditions, the report will be forwarded to a local groundwater management area group, which includes a number of local conservation districts. The area group, in turn, will make a separate recommendation to the Texas Water Development Board which is charged with reconciling differences and conflicts among the recommendations from the state’s 16 groundwater management areas, said joe Cooper, general manager of the Lost Pines district.

The same process must be completed every five years, allowing for future adjustments as conditions change, said Cooper.

Bastrop, Tx–Yes, most areas of Bastrop County received roughly two inches of welcome rain over the past weekend. And yes, the county’s emergency order banning outdoor burning because of ongoing drought conditions remains in effect, according Bastrop County Emergency Management Coordinator Mike Fisher.

And yes, officers of the sheriff’s department are still writing citations for burn ban violations. A citation can carry a fine of up to $500.

Fisher said he is still evaluating current conditions, in part because weather forecasts suggest more rain is possible over the coming weekend. He will report again on current conditions to county commissioners when they meet next on Monday, March 23. Commissioners could act then to modify or extend the emergency order on outdoor burning.