Joshua trees win permanent protection through California budget trailer bill

After years of attempts to protect the western Joshua tree with designation under the state or federal Endangered Species Act, the iconic and gangly high desert plant finally will receive permanent protections through a less-typical route: a trailer bill passed as part of the state’s budget.

California lawmakers passed the Western Joshua Tree Conservation Act on Tuesday as part of the state budget agreement, which also includes $5 million for environmental organizations to participate in conservation efforts for the species.  Gov. Gavin Newsom is expected to sign the state budget agreement sometime this week. The bill prohibits any person or public agency from importing into the state, exporting out of the state, or taking, possessing, or selling within the state, a western Joshua tree or any part or product of the tree, with some exceptions.

The Center for Biological Diversity praised the passage of the new law, calling it the first law in California that protects a species based on threats from climate change. The tree’s suitable habitat is expected to decline substantially by 2100 due to climate change, especially in the southern portions of its range — meaning the Joshua tree would largely be unable to survive in its namesake park by the end of this century.

“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,” Center for Biological Diversity’s Conservation Director Brendan Cummings said in a statement. “This groundbreaking law will help ensure these wonderful trees remain part of California’s Mojave Desert landscape forever.”

Joshua trees threatened by climate change

Over the past few years, conversations over protecting the species have placed the western Joshua tree in the crosshairs over tensions between climate change, conservation, and housing development in Southern California. As the Joshua tree’s southern range becomes less suitable habitat in coming years, identifying and protecting areas known as “climate refugia,” where Joshua trees may be able to thrive at higher elevations amid rising temperatures and climate change, will become even more important to the species’ survival. Outside of the park, the western Joshua tree’s habitat extends northeast, including through fast-growing high desert cities like Victorville, Hesperia and Palmdale, where California residents themselves have increasingly sought refuge from high housing prices — a crucial point for opponents who say listing the species would slow development in the region.

Some of these high desert cities, San Bernardino County, and real estate and building trade groups have opposed attempts to protect the species for this reason.

“San Bernardino County greatly values the Western Joshua tree as an iconic symbol of the Mojave Desert and actively supports efforts to protect and preserve the species. However, the county opposed (the) Western Joshua Tree Conservation Act Budget Trailer Bill. . . because it fails to properly balance the protection of the species with the needs of our residents and business community, thereby threatening the quality of life in our deserts,” stated a press release from San Bernardino County on Tuesday.

The county argued that mitigation fees that will be required to remove trees in certain cases, which range from $150 to $1,000 per tree, “will discourage the building of much-needed homes, stifle economic investment, increase development costs in the region, and significantly harm the county’s Mojave Desert communities and residents.”

Efforts to list Joshua tree under Endangered Species Act began in 2015

In March, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declined to list Joshua trees under the federal Endangered Species Act following the agency’s second review of the species. Looking at expected threats to the species from wildfire, invasive grasses, climate change, and habitat loss and fragmentation from 2040-69, the agency determined that “Joshua trees display enough resiliency, redundancy, and representation to not be at risk of becoming endangered in the foreseeable future.” WildEarth Guardians decried the decisions as “ignoring science and the law,” and criticized that the agency for looking primarily at risks to the species between 2040 to 2069.

Similar fights have played out in the effort to list the species as threatened under the California Endangered Species Act, a process that began when the California Fish and Game Commission accepted the Center for Biological Diversity’s petition to list the species in September 2020, granting the tree interim protections as a candidate species.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife recommended against protecting the species, concluding that while the loss of suitable habitat areas for the western Joshua tree is “expected to have negative effects on the abundance of western Joshua tree and is cause for substantial concern,” the “currently abundant and widespread” population lessens the overall impact of these threats for the foreseeable future, which the department defined as through 2100.

The Center for Biological Diversity responded by calling this conclusion “a soft form of climate denial.”

Over the past year, the California Fish and Game Commission repeatedly delayed or deadlocked on making a final decision on listing the tree, until finally deciding in February to delay voting on the listing after the introduction of the Western Joshua Tree Conservation Act, which was billed as a way to streamline permitting for housing and renewable energy developments in exchange for funds to acquire broad-scale habitat for them elsewhere.

What the Western Joshua Tree Conservation Act will do

As a candidate for listing, the tree has received the same protections as a state-listed endangered or threatened species. This includes a prohibition on the import, export, take (or kill), possession, purchase, or sale of the western Joshua tree, or any part or product of the tree, without proper authorization.

These protections will remain under the new law, but with the addition of streamlined permitting mechanisms for new housing, renewable energy developments, and other projects, in exchange for the payment of mitigation funds that will be used to acquire habitat for the iconic trees elsewhere.

Harming or removing the trees will be prohibited unless a permit is obtained and fees or other mitigation options are provided. The Department of Fish and Wildlife will authorize permits for removing Joshua trees, following a process that includes the permittee providing a census of all Joshua trees on their property, including photos and sizes for each tree. Mitigation steps could include fees, relocating the tree, and will generally require that the harm or removal of trees are limited as much as possible.

In addition to this option, the law allows the department to enter agreements with cities and counties that gives those municipalities the ability to authorize the removal of a western Joshua tree associated with developing housing or public works projects, which streamlines the process instead of sending each permit application through state review. Requirements for projects approved under this process include that the project not remove more than 10 individual trees from a project site for housing, or more than 40 trees on a site for a public works project.

Required fees for removing Joshua trees increase at sites that are within or in close proximity to Joshua Tree National Park or state park units.

The new law also requires the state Department of Fish and Wildlife to prepare a conservation plan for the trees by the end of 2024, and submit an updated status report on the species by 2033.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Joshua trees win permanent protection through new California law