California to Conserve Joshua Trees With New Fees

A Joshua tree stands in Joshua Tree National Park, Calif., on May 18, 2020. Mario Tama/Getty Images

Environmentalists are applauding a new law to protect western Joshua trees in California that bans tree removals without a permit and funds conservation efforts.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the Western Joshua Tree Conservation Act into law when he signed the revised state budget for fiscal year 2023–24 on June 27. The law took effect on July 1.

The act’s proponents say the new law will protect the western Joshua Tree by requiring the state to develop a conservation plan, minimizing cutting the trees down. It also includes a fee of up to $1,000 for every tree that’s felled payable to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

“I’m grateful the Newsom administration and lawmakers agree that western Joshua trees are an irreplaceable part of California’s natural heritage that has to be protected,” Brendan Cummings, the Center for Biological Diversity’s conservation director who lives in Joshua Tree, said in a statement. “This groundbreaking law will help ensure these wonderful trees remain part of California’s Mojave Desert landscape forever.”

Joshua trees stand in Joshua Tree National Park near Twentynine Palms, Calif., on July 23, 2021. The park is among California's most popular tourist destinations. Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Despite the name, the desert plants aren’t actually trees. They’re succulents that store water and are found mostly in the Mojave Desert, which spans California, Nevada, Utah, and Arizona. The trees, named for the biblical figure Joshua by Mormon settlers, are notable for their twisting limbs that end in clusters of spiky leaves and white rounded flowers and are susceptible to changes in climate.

According to a March 2022 report on the status of the western Joshua tree issued by the Department of Fish and Wildlife, the species continues to be threatened by many factors.

“The population size and area occupied by western Joshua trees have declined since European settlement largely due to habitat modification and destruction, a trend that has continued to the present,” the report reads. “Primary threats to the species are climate change, development and other human activities, and wildfire.”

California is home to Joshua Tree National Park, named after the species, and the community of Joshua Tree, in San Bernardino County with about 7,800 residents, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

According to the Center for Biological Diversity, the new law will be the first in California specifically focused on ensuring the protection of a climate-threatened species and will prohibit killing or removing western Joshua trees without a permit.

The statute will provide protections comparable to the ones they currently receive under the state’s Endangered Species Act, with added permitting requirements to address renewable energy and housing projects within range of the trees.

It also requires the state’s Department of Fish and Wildlife to prepare a conservation plan for the trees by the end of 2024 and mandates the creation of a state fund to acquire and manage lands to protect the species. It also requires consultation with California Native American Tribes on the law’s implementation.

A Joshua Tree in Joshua Tree National Park, Calif., on June 2, 2014. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

The species flourishes in the Morongo Basin, east of Palm Springs. The town council in Yucca Valley, California, a small community within the basin, formally opposed the law in April.

“The bill would provide restrictive protections for the western Joshua Tree, and potentially future species, through a state budget process that does not consider the impacts of such actions on both public and private property within the Town of Yucca Valley,” town officials said in a statement in April.

David Fick, a Joshua Tree resident and vice president of the Morongo Basin Conservation Association, told The Epoch Times that Yucca Valley has removed thousands of the trees for development over the years.

“I’ve been involved trying to save trees [in the area] for 30 years,” Mr. Fick said. “The younger trees are more important.”

The bill was opposed by about 100 nonprofit conservation-related organizations, which claimed it would result in the elimination of thousands of trees.

“This proposal would undermine the California Endangered Species Act and allow the destruction of hundreds of thousands of acres of Western Joshua tree woodlands but would result in the protection of only hundreds of acres of habitat, setting a disastrously low mitigation standard for an imperiled species,” the conservation groups wrote in a letter to Mr. Newsom on June 3.

A sign marks an entrance to Joshua Tree National Park on May 18, 2020, in Joshua Tree National Park, California. Mario Tama/Getty Images/TNS

Western Joshua trees have been temporarily federally protected since the species became a candidate for protection under the California Endangered Species Act in September 2020.

The Center for Biological Diversity first petitioned the state’s Fish and Game Commission in 2019, asking the state to list the tree as a threatened species.

Earlier this year, the California Fish and Game Commission postponed a decision to permanently protect western Joshua trees under the state’s endangered species act. The commission found the protection was warranted but decided to wait and see if the bill passed to make a decision.

Beyond the conservation planning and fees, the state’s bill incorporated the needs of California tribes through government-to-government consultation, co-management, and relocation of western Joshua trees to tribal lands upon request, California Fish and Wildlife Department Director Charlton Bonham reported in February.