I Bought A Wasteland To Turn It Into A Desert Forest

Hi, Land Development Civil Engineer here. I really like your project and what you're trying to do. A recommendation I really encourage is to build a shelter with supplies first before you do any work to change the land, just you have somewhere to ride out storms and to store any equipment you get to do changes to the land. I also recommend hiring a landscape architect or civil engineer to draw some overall plans for your drainage features. You don't want to accidentally ruin all your hard work in building up the soil by having it washed away. They'll draw plans that include things like silt fencing to keep in disturbed soil. It helps to get multiple perspectives, so I'd also recommend asking people in nearby Native Reservations what plants/practices work best for this land too.

I am 76, my accomplishments are behind me, however, my thirst for watching others accomplish goals never ends. I not only learn things I will not use, but love watching others enjoy their successes, whether it is someone sailing around the world, turning a school bus into a home, or growing something in the desert, it is all new and interesting to me! Enjoy this journey, and I suspect you will succeed in this project as you have in the past...

I am 51 years old from yemen I am very happy to see your steps forward successfully We have a good experience in our country how to deal With this kind of desert lands and as i understood from your video that the water is very near to reach and this the most important thing Best wishes for you

You need to know your boundary lines definitively. Start as close to the mountain range (highest elevation) where your catchments and swales will be most effective without MAJOR excavation. If you start high, your rainfall diversion systems can be smaller and have maximum impact on the volume of flash flooding that occurs in the arroyos in a heavy storm. The initial objective is to infiltrate the storm water at the highest elevation, install your plantings, get them established. Then move down hill to the next phase (following the water) as time and resources permit. If you are very clever you may find opportunities to redirect/divide the water course upstream into multiple flows with excavation and structures. As you follow the water down hill your structures/excavations must become larger and permanent because the watershed increases exponentially. Over time, if you are successful - you should have a healthy aquifer that you can pump to support your small trees in their critical first two years on site with micro irrigation.

I encourage you to talk to an ecologist familiar with that area. People tend to look at deserts as wastelands, but they are anything but to the animals and plants that live there. A desert forest sounds wonderful as a person, but you may find it’s detrimental in some ways to some species. It’s also worth considering the downstream effects as you catch more of that precious water. I’m not saying it’s a bad idea or anything, but I would encourage you to know what’s there and what the key dynamics of your ecosystem and water systems are before you change them. It will help guide your decisions and increase your success.

Wishing you good luck. It won't be easy. BTW, NEVER drive into the desert without a lot of water, full gas tanks, and rescue equipment. Even if you can contact the local police force, it could still take them a day to get to you. I've ridden dirt bikes out in that area and it is a beautiful area, but very harsh.

In dry areas that have temporary water flowing through them it helps a lot to build rock structures sideways across where the water flows. It slows down the flow and holds back the water behind each structure and allows the water time to seep into the ground. This has been done on wadis in saudi arabia and is now being used in the us. Even if you do nothing but built these rock structures the added moisture will allow new plants and trees to grow. If you look at the irrigation canals in arizona youll notice vegetation built up on one side of the canal and thats because the concrete channel is causing the same effect and making water build up on one side vs flowing past. You have the perfect spot to do this with the dry river bed in your property.

Just as an input from an academic nerd, a good way to learn, and gather resources is to try to get local bachelor students and master studentes (in agriculture or other nature based sciences) do projects on your site. Could be beneficial for you both. Love the project shaun!

I've lived in the desert most of my life and since you asked for advice. Here's one from the ages. Good fences make good neighbors. Hire a surveyor and put a fence around your land. Not only will that keep you out of trouble with your neighbors, it'll save you some heartache as well. A project like this takes a long time and it would be a shame to have it grazed to the ground after some fella's cows get out.

I am so glad that you, a software engineer and a dude from the suburbs, is doing this west Texas project. I know I can build my mini-farm in central TX, where I get alot more H2O, sometimes too much but all at once. Like last night when it raind so much as to flood my backyard and my wastewater tanks! It wont be too long and we will be in drought conditions wth burn bans. My soil composition is not sand/rock like yours. I have 20 percent sand in my 60 percent limestone silty loam and gravel rock. But with the right ammenities, I can work this. For one part, its about finding the right native trees. For the other part, its about building up the right composts into my soil for gardening.

I lived and worked out there in that part of West Texas for 40 years. A drought out there can mean that there is NO RAIN AT ALL for YEARS at a time. 2 years and not a drop of rain is not uncommon. The other phenomenon regarding rain is yes, it might rain 14 inches a year, 10 inches in one downpour and 4 in the next and you're done with rain until next year.

The possibility of turning part of West Texas into a desert forest has been heavy on my mind for the past few months. I wish you the very best of luck with this.

Greetings...I'm a 66 year old native Texan who used to do some ranching...your vision and project are intriguing....I've only been to far West Texas one time, and it's a unique ecosystem...I appreciate you giving back to the land, and look forward to your videos......Mike

Hey Shawn, I am from northern Patagonia. You'd be surprise of the things one can achieve in the desert. Here's my advice: Preventing erosion (i.e. protecting plants from wind, cattle, sudden floods) is as important as irrigating/watering plants. You prevent erosion by covering all those little canyons in the property with dead wood and fencing. And then there are plants that can lead the recovery process. Plants that grow first and provide shelter and shade to grass coming after. In northern Patagonia people have even managed to plant vast amounts of lands with ponderosa pines, which are extremely resistant to dry and cold weather.

We live in South Austrslia on 500 acres, an area that has 14 inches of rain each year. But drought years occur every 8th year, those years is no water. We have plant 2000 trees with a 30% loss. We have used mostly Eucalyptus tree and other trees from similar climates around the World. The first year is hard work to give trees a drink every 8 weeks. We use a small water truck bought for $8000 . We also spent money on organic weed surrounds or plastic 13:24 sheets around 26inches diameter. This keeps weeds away from young trees and limits evaporation. All the best mate Cheers Carolyn and Simon Temperatures range from -1c to 44c in summer.

Thank you for no annoying music, no shaky camera work, and good audio. New sub. Looking forward to enjoying your adventure with you. BTW, I was born and raised in Ft. Worth.

I live a little further south in Val Verde county where we average 19” a year but last year we went 11 months without any measurable rain. When it does rain you get 40-60 mph winds and a monsoon 2-3” in a very short time frame. I have built swales all around my property and they will hold back 3-4’ of water and slowly release it over a two day period so make your water catchment deep and strong. I will also point out that solar works very well here and it is all I use.

Being a Texan, I am very excited about your experiment! Thank you for your straight forward honesty and direct approach. Great job!

What a weird coincidence, thank you YouTube algorithm. I’m a Texan studying permaculture and I got the same thing in mind. Thank you very much for going through the trouble of the project itself and putting it all together for the public to see. Appreciate you and good luck my fellow Texan 💪

I had 60 acres once, just outside of Sierra Blanca. I found out that during the 90s and early 2000s the Texas governors allowed Sludge to be imported daily from new york by the ton. They claim the land was claimed to be safe, but after I found out that it was used as a sludge dump, I got rid of it. There are many articles if you are curious. Additionally. Many Sierra Blanca residents got cancer and were fighting to prove it was because of the toxic sewage from NY.