In a city exploding with urbanization, the Wild Basin Wilderness Preserve is a resource of 227 acres of Texas Hill Country native habitat 10 miles from campus. In 2009, St. Edward’s University assumed the role of nonprofit, and now co-owns and co-manages the preserve alongside Travis County.
“Wild Basin is a wilderness preserve that was protected just in time to have pretty much the full suite of native species that you would find in Central Texas,” Executive Director of Wild Basin Creative Research Center Barbara Dugelby, Ph.D., said. “Landscape restoration ecologists come to Wild Basin to look at what an area should look like. We walk out onto the trails and the diversity of plants and animals is just beautiful.”
The Wild Basin Creative Research Center (WBCRC) is a field research station within the preserve that houses six staff members, classroom space and a computer lab. It also has a robust environmental education program for K-12 schools.
The Dr. Allan W. Hook Endowed Wild Basin Creative Research Fund is another resource that gives fellowships to students — undergraduate or graduate — from any university in the world to do research or creative works at Wild Basin or in the Balcones Canyonlands Preserve.
Wild Basin also offers a number of paid internship opportunities, including research, environmental education, stewardship and communication. These internships are open to any major, not just students in the natural or environmental sciences.
“Reach out to us because some of our best interns became interns even when we didn’t plan to have an intern,” Dugelby said. “They reach out, and they say, ‘I’m interested in doing this’ or ‘Is there some way I can help? This is what I’m studying.’ … But just reach out to us or come to events like the speaker and social series, which are really fun and interesting.”
Senior Wren Conner, a 2023 Hooks Fellow, is currently working on a project that looks at bird communities and how they respond to habitat restoration.
“If I was limited to SEU campus, I wouldn’t have been able to do my research project,” Conner said. “(My mentors) helped connect me with people at the City of Austin and Travis County who were able to help shape my project and make it a success.”
Upcoming research at Wild Basin includes looking at the effects of urbanization on stream quality in the macroinvertebrate community, focusing on Bee Creek, which runs through the preserve. Research Director of WBCRC Gabriella Pardee, Ph.D., says that they can’t control what happens outside the preserve, but want to look at the policy side and educate the public on the importance of stream conservation.
Although St. Edward’s has co-owned and co-managed Wild Basin for years, it is still a challenge for the staff to effectively promote the preserve to the St. Edward’s community.
“I would say either to volunteer… or just visit and view it,” land management student intern Rylie Katz said. “I think the school that’s affiliated with it, those students should be involved as much as they can.”
