"In the Mojave Desert, rising temperatures, less rainfall, and more intense wildfires are killing off Joshua trees. California officials are working on a plan to protect the distinctive yucca tree and its desert ecosystem by establishing refuges and controlling development."
"In 2020, the Dome Fire swept through Southern California’s Mojave National Preserve, blackening nearly 70 square miles of highly biodiverse desert. The conflagration killed 1.3 million Joshua trees, including most of those on Cima Dome, one of the largest and densest Joshua tree woodlands in the world.
Then in 2023, the York Fire swept through and burned a large section of adjacent Joshua tree forest, killing another million or so trees. The destruction on Cima Dome — which is higher in elevation and cooler than the surrounding desert — came as an especially severe blow to the National Park Service and conservationists who had considered it a stronghold for the eastern Joshua tree and a key to the species’ future.
Experts were planning to make Cima Dome a refuge by clearing out invasive grasses and monitoring the woodland’s health, said Andrew Kaiser, a botanist who worked at the Mojave National Preserve during the fires and now works for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, developing its Western Joshua Tree Conservation Plan. “The perimeter of the 2020 Dome fire was essentially the exact outline of the model climate refugia. It almost completely overlapped it.”"
Jim Robbins reports for Yale Environment 360 September 5, 2024.
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