Ecological restoration is the intentional process of helping to recover an ecosystem that has been damaged, degraded, or destroyed.
Deserts make up about a quarter of the Earth’s land and growing. However, deserts are spreading with a process called desertification. Where once fertile, dryland areas, like grasslands gradually, lose their productivity and become barren. This can happen due to natural causes like climate variations, but human activities like overgrazing are a major accelerator.
Desert ecosystems like that of West Texas that have severely damaged, depleted, eroded and abused can be restored – in theory.
Shaun Overton is finding out what it takes to make it happen in practice.
Overton is working to turn his 320 acres of Chihuahuan hard scrabble into a desert forest. And he’s doing it in front of an audience on YouTube on his channel called Dustups.
