In California’s plan to preserve the Joshua tree

While renewable energy companies since razing thousands of Joshua trees this month to make way for a sprawling solar farm, it kicking up the fire of a storm of anger between Mojave Desert residents and activists.

It’s a public view of the prickly dilemma that conservationists face as they fight to preserve the western Joshua tree. As the state nears completion of a draft conservation plan later this year, climate change and solar projects threaten the trees’ beautiful desert habitat.

Climate scientists predict that by the end of this century, the western Joshua tree will survive alone 10% for 25% the land they currently live on. And, as the Mojave and Colorado deserts continue to warm and dry, succulents may disappear almost entirely from Southern California – including from Joshua Tree National Park.

The problem, experts say, is that while many species are able to move north and to higher elevations to escape rising temperatures, Joshua trees are slow to migrate and can’t keep up.

“Since Joshua was in this triple squeeze,” said Christopher Smith, a biology professor at Willamette University who co-wrote a 2023 paper exploring how to balance solar development and Joshua tree conservation.

First, there is climate change, Smith said. Next, there is habitat loss due to urbanization and solar development. Finally, there are stronger wildfires – which can wipe it out A fair percentage of all Joshua trees survive in one season.

“There are some places,” Smith said, “where half the trees have died, based on our census, in the last 15 years.”

After a a year-long effort failed to get the western Joshua tree – a species distinct from its eastern counterpart – listed as an endangered species by 2022, climate and state advocates. developed law to protect them. It ordered the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to draft a science-backed and Native-American conservation plan by the end of 2024, and pay the cost of removing the Joshua tree — a cost that would be used to fund conservation work.

For the year, environmental groups and even government agency has talked about moving the plant as far north as Oregon, to a climate almost identical to Southern California within a hundred years. However, Joshua tree scientists say transplanting the species isn’t easy.

Among other obstacles to relocation, the western Joshua tree depends on a single species of yucca moth to pollinate them. They also require unique, underground fungal tissue which delivers nutrients to the tree. And scientists say there are other species the plant relies on that we don’t yet know about.

“I think most people would say it’s a Hail Mary pass,” Smith said of moving the plants such a long distance. “To have (trees) as a long-term legacy, and not just zoo animals, you also have to have a functioning ecosystem.”

A Joshua tree in the Juniper Hills was destroyed by a Bobcat fire in 2020. Wildfires, along with climate change and habitat loss, are increasing the toll on Joshua trees in California.

(Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times)

However, the Department of Fish and Wildlife is going on the defensive and focusing on protecting the trees in selected locations where they stand the best chance for survival. The scientists used future climate models and maps of the location of Joshua trees to determine the areas in the trees’ current habitat that will still have an acceptable climate in a hundred years.

Many of these areas, called climate refugia, are small – meaning scientists need very detailed maps to identify them. So, a team from the United States Geological Survey set out to create one. They studied nearly 1 million points over more than 50,000 square miles on Google Earth; then, they drove more than 9,000 miles along asphalt and dirt roads through the course of 30 site visits to verify that the trees they saw in the satellite images were actually there.

The resulting data set, released in December 2023, is a battle map for the country’s army of conservationists and scientists. They use the app to identify refugia in the region – locations where they can deploy every defense in their arsenal and protect land developers, wildfires, heat waves and droughts.

Steps can include clearing flammable brush, planting new Joshua trees and also preserving the entire ecosystem the trees rely on, including moths and fungi. The country is also asking scientists to look at how to make trees more resilient.

Smith and his colleagues have sequenced the genomes of 300 Joshua trees and counting. From genetic maps like these, scientists have discovered that some populations of Joshua trees have genes that make them more resistant to hotter and drier conditions.

Although there is no published research on the topic, there is preliminary evidence that roots adapted to better collect nutrients with fungi may be able to grow new trees after forest fires, according to Smith. This budding body of research could help countries introduce specific adaptations into refugia – and generally maintain high genetic diversity – essentially helping the Joshua tree adapt to climate change more quickly.

The country’s focus on refugia does not mean that all other Joshua trees will die. The conservation law includes a tree relocation program to move trees threatened by property development to these climate shelters. The Wildlands Conservancynon-profit with dozens of preserves across the western US, also wants to provide homes for the relocation of Joshua trees.

In 2006, the Sawtooth complex fire destroyed the Joshua tree forest in the 2,500-acre Pioneer Mountains Preserve, located northwest of Joshua Tree National Park. Tim Krantz, the group’s conservation director and professor emeritus of environmental studies at the University of Redlands, hopes to work with the state to rebuild the forest with transplanted Joshua trees.

Thousands of Joshua trees, such as large specimens estimated to be 150 to 200 years old, will be removed from the outskirts of Boron to create massive solar arrays.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

But moving an entire forest isn’t easy — or cheap. Conservationists need a large hydraulic tree spade to burn the surrounding vegetation and dirt. And when planting a tree in another location, the caretakers must ensure the same side as the succulent faces due to the north and follow an intensive watering regimen for the first few years after moving.

“We’re hoping to move hundreds of trees, and at that scale … there’s a lot of ongoing monitoring and maintenance going on — a lot of boots on the ground,” said Krantz, who uses a landscaping company frequently. trees were moved, including the Joshua tree.

While Krantz hopes the conservation fund can support the work, the fund – which finances all aspects of conservation – probably won’t have enough money to pay for the entire expensive process of relocating every tree threatened by property development.

Scientists, state and tribal officials are still debating the details of the conservation plan, but the Department of Fish and Wildlife isn’t waiting to act. One of the first steps in creating an ecological fortress around the Joshua tree refugia is to make sure that the state owns the land or has permission to do conservation work there. In 2023, the department completed the first land acquisition with nonprofits Native American Land Conservancy.

The site is not only a potential Joshua tree shelter but also a cultural site for the Kawaiisu tribe. Now, the land will be permanently conserved by the tribe and conservancy, who voluntarily enter into a legal conservation easement, facilitated by the state.

“It really reassures everybody that the land is set aside for its intended purpose forever — because it’s recorded,” said Nicole Johnson, an attorney who works with the tribe and a board member of the Native American Land Conservancy.

Desert ecologists leave a Joshua tree study site in Joshua Tree National Park in May 2023.

(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

In addition to partnering with the Native American Land Conservancy, the country is working with more than a dozen indigenous tribes to comanage conservation plans and marry science with traditional ecological knowledge. However, building relationships with tribal governments takes time, said Drew Kaiser, a senior environmental scientist at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife who is coordinating the development of the conservation plan. The comanagement aspect of the plan is still in its early stages.

The department is also working on a solar project in the Mojave Desert near Boron to preserve more than 80,000 acres of Joshua tree habitat, according to the company. The state requires companies to pay more than $1.3 million to the conservation fund to offset the damage. However, the company does not plan to move any of the 4,700 trees.

For Smith, this is the reality of the state of the country. “Many species are going extinct, and many populations of Joshua trees … are going to die. Where we are now is to stop the bleeding and decide who to save.