I’ve been watching Shaun Overton at his Dustups Ranch for a while now. With tenacious vigor, Shaun has undertaken a greening project on 320 acres in a remote area of Texas. This latest video is exciting as there is visible progress starting to pop up as happy surprises from a lot of hard work. You can also get an idea of the sheer magnitude of the challenge.
Where is Dustups Ranch?
From watching several videos, I have heard Shaun mention the following: “five miles from the Mexican border”, “nearest city is El Paso”, and “40-minute drive to Sierra Blanca”.
Shaun has posted a lot of interesting videos throughout his journey. I picked this one for the first feature because [at 15:45] he mentioned a NRCS Grant. That piqued my interest, so I did a little digging. A quick summary of the program is below. I’m happy to see that there are government programs supporting efforts such as this.
Shaun is self-funded for the most part and is great at cultivating support via social media. Please check out his YouTube channel for more cool videos and ways to support his project.
Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. They offer an initiative called the Conservation Innovation Grants program. It is a national and state-level competition that supports the development of new natural resource practices, tools and technologies on private land. Details including FAQ, requirements, examples and case studies can be found on their website.
Sources:
Conservation Innovation Grants Website
Shaun Overton’s YouTube Channel