wildlife

In 2016 Sebastiaan and Evelien bought a ranch-style house in the Texas Hill Country on 5 acres of land. Three-years later they were able to purchase an adjacent, untouched lot of identical size. With the exception of the space taken up by their house and driveway, all the land is reserved for the wildlife. While 10 acres might not be much for Americans, it surely is for Dutch immigrants. Either way, Sebastiaan and Evelien felt 10 acres is enough to protect the home of the many animals living there. The land is (or can be) home to a large variety of animals and plant. Unfortunately, most of the Texas Hill Country is overgrown by native Ashe juniper trees.

Since European settlers arrived in Texas a couple of centuries ago, much of the native Texas grasslands disappeared as the result of overgrazing by their cattle. Most big "old growth" Ashe junipers (often incorrectly referred to as "Texas cedar") were cut and the decline of natural wildfires prevented natural control of the spread of shrubby, multi-trunked versions of this trees. The result is a monotonous landscape heavily dominated by multi-trunked Ashe junipers. 

While Ashe junipers offer some benefits to the wildlife (berries, shade, protection, and, importantly, the endangered Golden-cheek warbler uses strips of bark from "old growth" Ashe juniper as nesting material), the closed canopy of the Ashe junipers blocks rain and sun from reaching the ground. This is especially detrimental when this tree has overgrown and outcompeted other native trees such as live oak, cedar elm, Texas persimmon and hackberry. There is little to no opportunity for other plants to grow under the Ashe junipers. Furthermore, most Ashe junipers now are multi-trunked and have hundreds of large, thin, dead branches under its canopy, preventing any movement of larger mammals in a huge area around the base of the tree. 

In consultation with biologists and local universities, we work to restore the savannah ecosystem. We do this by significantly reducing the number of multi-trunked Ashe junipers, while protecting the "old-growth" trees. This will allow for the return of open space and native grasses and will give space to other tree species that were choked by the dense, unrestricted growth of the multi-trunked Ashe junipers. We do this work gradually and carefully, using an electric chainsaw, so plants and animals have time to adapt, and never work on our land in the spring when our wildlife is nesting and nursing.

Volunteering
As you can imagine, this is quite labor intensive and we could use some help. If you live near San Antonio, TX and are interested in volunteering, please send an email to Sebastiaan (bol@cowboycatranch.org). 

On this page you can see photographs of all the species seen at Cowboy Cat Ranch. All photographs are made by Evelien Bunnik, unless stated otherwise.