Joshua trees recommended for endangered species listing in California

The Joshua tree — the Southwest's weird, beloved, iconic plant — took a big step toward heightened legal protection with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife's recommendation to list it under the state's Endangered Species Act going public Monday.

The decision applies to the western Joshua tree — one of two similar species — and comes in response to a petition that the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental advocacy group, filed in October. Two months before that request was received, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service denied a similar action under the federal act.

"We're delighted that the department followed the science and the law and recommended that the species advance one step closer to protection,” said Brendan Cummings, who authored the petition in his role as the center's conservation director.

Next, the listing process moves on to the state's Fish and Game Commission, which is a board appointed by the governor. The commission often follows recommendations given to it by the department and will vote on the matter in June.

If the commission approves the petition, the species will be made a candidate for endangered status for a year to determine whether the decision is appropriate. At that point, a second recommendation and vote will confer or deny final protection under the law.

Isabel Baer, an environmental program manager overseeing native plants for the state's wildlife department, said that it is a long process, but "hopefully at the end of it we have the appropriate amount of science."

Joshua trees — which the National Parks Service describes as "twisted, spiky trees straight out of a Dr. Seuss book" — are a symbol of the Mojave Desert and are found across several million acres in four states: California, Nevada, Utah and Arizona.

According to the National Park Service, nearly 3 million people visited Joshua Tree National Park in 2018, spending almost $150 million in communities around the park and indirectly supporting more than 1,800 local jobs.

But a rapidly changing climate likely spells trouble for the tree. Rising temperatures and increasingly variable patterns of rain and snow mean the species might lose viable habitat.

"Every published modeling effort has predicted range contractions along the western edge of the Joshua tree’s range in California," Center for Biological Diversity staff wrote in their petition to obtain a listing.

For Cummings, however, the department's recommendation provides a silver lining for conservation efforts in California, as it could set a precedent in why species are granted protection.

“The state of California has, to date, never protected a species primarily on the threat of climate change," Cummings said. This potentially opens up the California Endangered Species Act to listing more plants and animals that are being driven to higher elevations or farther north to avoid rising temperatures.

If the commission ultimately votes to approve the environmental group's petition, that would compel state agencies to begin working on a recovery plan to ensure the long-term survival of the species. It would also throw up another permitting roadblock for development projects that would remove western Joshua trees.

In its report, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife staff wrote: "There is sufficient scientific information available to indicate that the petitioned action may be warranted and recommends that the petition be accepted and considered."

The federal government's decision last year to deny either species of Joshua tree protection under the Endangered Species Act was based partly on the fact that state and local programs had already given the trees some protection. Federal regulators said they also reviewed maps showing there had been "no major reduction or contraction in Joshua tree population during the last 40 years."

"The federal determination doesn't do anything for our determination," Baer said, although the state will likely borrow from some of the research collected at the federal level when compiling its own recommendations.

Cummings said much of the western Joshua tree's habitat in California is on private and state land, meaning a state listing would go a long way in protecting it. "The state must fill that void and lead efforts to ensure the Joshua tree’s survival," he said.

Mark Olalde covers the environment for The Desert Sun. Get in touch at molalde@gannett.com, and follow him on Twitter at @MarkOlalde.