St. Edward’s University has become to the Wild Basin Wilderness Preserve what the Wild Basin has always been to the golden-cheeked warbler, a safe-haven where the latter can thrive and grow.

About two years ago, the Wild Basin Wilderness Preserve had mere months to live on its own funding, but St. Edward’s University bought the property to operate it as a wholly owned subsidiary. Even with the support, the director and two other full time personnel were laid off, and in the interim, the land manager and educational coordinator Mitch Robinson became the only full-time employee.

“St. Edward’s offered assistance and guidance as far as funds were concerned,” Robinson said. “And about two weeks ago, they voted to incorporate [Wild Basin] into St. Edward’s as part of the university.”

In the transition period, as the preserve becomes an outdoor extension of the college’s classrooms, the burden of financial decisions and business operation has been lifted off Basin employees, leaving them to focus on the needs of the basin and its frequent visitors.

So Robinson, who studied forestry and geology at Sewanee: The University of the South in Tennesee, can get back to doing what he loves, focusing on the physical needs of the land and educational programs for the frequent field trip tours he hosts. After graduating with his undergraduate degree in 2007, he moved to Portland, Ore., for a short time, then back East to do environmental and geological consulting work.

“This is the coolest thing I’ve ever done,” he said.

The nature side came, well, naturally to him, but he spent significant time early on studying the nuances of the Central Texas ecosystem and its differences from the more damp areas of the East.

While he never planned on getting involved in early childhood education, he’s taken to it like the Jollyville salamander has taken to the Wild Basin’s wet limestone caves.

“I try to give [the students] a pretty general overview of the plants and the various types of rocks and explain the difference between a park and a preserve,” he said.

The majority of the tours are for elementary school- or middle school-aged students.

“We get some kids in from lower socioeconomic areas, and they’ve never really experienced nature in this way before,” he said.

He said he hopes the refocus of his job off of the business side and back to nature and programs will give him more of an opportunity to study “Nature Deficiency Disorder,” a concept that he said is just gaining traction in science and educational fields that describes the physiological impact of a lack of exposure to nature on children.

These academic endeavors will become commonplace at the basin as St. Edward’s fleshes out its educational programs and sets up a permanent classroom and laboratory on site.

“We are developing it as an educational resource,” said Rob Manzer, St. Edward’s University vice president of academic affairs and former secretary of the Wild Basin Board of Directors. “We just opened up a position for a director, who will be a St. Edward’s faculty member with an office there and an office here.”

But what does this transition mean to the 50 or so visitors to the park each day and its corps of volunteers? Fortunately, not much.

“The goal is that the change be pretty seamless,” Manzer said. “Nothing will change in terms of hours or accessibility, but we are trying to offer more programs and opportunities to get engaged.”

That does, unfortunately for many pet owners, mean that the current no pets at all policy will stand.

Users will see more subtle changes than anything, like in coming months when the Web site becomes a link on the St. Edward’s site. Until recently, the closest thing to a formal information technology person the Wild Basin had was a longtime volunteer with a computer background who would drop in and help out during breaks from hiking the trails.

Upcoming programs at the Wild Basin include a concert by Jim Photoglo from 7-9 p.m. Oct. 10, a night of stargazing at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 16, and trail guide training the weekend of Oct. 17-18.

For more information, visit www.wildbasin.org.