By Caleigh Wells for KCRW.
Broadcast version by Suzanne Potter for California News Service reporting for the KCRW-Public News Service Collaboration

The California Fish and Game Commission delayed the decision again today over whether to grant state protection to the western Joshua tree.

The petition to protect the plant under the California Endangered Species Act (CESA) was submitted in 2019. If it is listed, it would be the first species to earn protection in the state because of climate change.

But the process has been contentious. And even when the decision is made, the fate of the plant is far from sealed.

How to save a tree

A member of the public must make a case to the California Fish and Game Commission that a species needs protection. In this case, the case is over the western Joshua tree, which primarily grows in California.

Their champion is Brendan Cummings. As conservation director for the Center for Biological DiversityCenter for Biological Diversity, he's litigated plenty of endangered species cases. "Fifteen or so years ago, I did the ... litigation that forced the Bush administration to protect the polar bear under the Federal Endangered Species Act."

But this species is personal. He's got dozens of them in his backyard in the town of Joshua Tree. "If you look around us here, the adult Joshua trees we're seeing were recruited into the population under a climate that no longer exists," he says.

But the case he's making isn't easy. Millions of these trees are still spanning thousands of square miles. Listing a species means businesses and residents must either avoid killing it if possible, or move it, or pay a fee if it must be killed. With so many trees left, that could be burdensome.

Kelly Herbinson says it's worth the trouble. She's the co-executive director of the Mojave Desert Land Trust, whose whole mission is to set aside acres of desert habitat for preservation.

"What we're seeing right now is unprecedented. This is serious. And I don't know that that's always obvious if you're not doing this every day and working on the land every day," she says.

At lower elevations, the western Joshua tree is facing the effects of the worst drought in more than a thousand years. "If you were to go to, say, the West Mojave, or even areas nearby where the drought has been really bad, I mean, they're mostly brown," she says.

In its middle elevations, the Joshua tree has been separated into small island habitats by decades of development as the human population in the desert continues to grow. That cuts off genetic flow between populations and creates problems like what LA's mountain lions are facing.

And then of course, at its middle and higher elevations, the Joshua tree is facing a threat it rarely encountered before: increased wildfire.

On a protected parcel of land across the street from where Herbinson works, a stray cigarette in 2020 burned most of the Joshua trees on a quarter of the 600 acres that the Mojave Desert Land Trust saved from becoming a housing development.

"That is not something that happened historically," she says. "There's this massive overgrowth of invasive plant species that are blanketing the desert and creating this massive fuel load. And then it dries out because we're in a drought. And then you just have this carpet of dried up plants that are ripe to burn."

There's also the problem of the tree's lifelong partner: the yucca moth. They're completely reliant on each other to survive.

The moth lives underground at the base of its tree for years, waiting for it to flower, and in the spring when it finally does, it emerges and pollinates the tree in exchange for food and a safe place to produce larvae.

But as the climate changes, scientists have found that the moths aren't reproducing like they used to.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife spent months studying the trees. Their job is to provide all the data and expertise that the commission needs to make a decision. In June, the department determined that there isn't compelling evidence that the western Joshua tree is in danger of going extinct in the foreseeable future. It said the plant has time to adapt to climate change.

Almost all of the peer-reviewed scientists disagreed. At the meeting in June, hundreds of members of the public showed up to throw in their opinion too.

Local politicians, the local water board, building developers, and labor unions all argued that listing an abundant plant in the desert as endangered would hurt development and jobs.

National politicians, conservationists, scientists, local residents, and tribal groups all made the case that the western Joshua tree is disappearing, and needs to be protected.

The commission reached a stalemate in June, and then on Wednesday they decided unanimously to delay the decision again, to leave room for more tribal consultation.

Cummings says he is not surprised by the delay. But even if the commission lists the western Joshua tree next year, he doubts the fight will end there either.

"If they vote to protect Joshua trees, various business interests will undoubtedly sue, trying to overturn that protection. And conversely, if the commission votes against protecting Joshua trees, I will sue, attempting to overturn that unlawful, unscientific decision. So the future of the species is likely to be contested for the next few years," he says.

For now, the Joshua tree has temporary protection, since it is a candidate species for CESA. The commission will revisit the decision in February 2023.

Caleigh Wells wrote this article for KCRW.


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A federal court in Montana has held a hearing more than two years after a coalition of environmental advocates sued the U.S. Forest Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service over expanding cattle grazing in the Paradise Valley, part of the Custer Gallatin National Forest.

The coalition, which includes Alliance for the Wild Rockies and the Western Watersheds Project, sued the agencies for extending the cattle grazing season by a month on nearly 1,400 acres of forest land.

Mike Garrity, executive director of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, said the plan will mean more interactions between young, unattended cattle and grizzly bears, which would not end well for either one.

"Putting calves out a month early when they're very small just provides a 'fast food snack' for a grizzly bear," Garrity pointed out. "A small calf makes an easy target for a grizzly bear. They can't defend themselves. They're not very big."

Garrity noted ranchers then complain about bear activity to the Fish and Wildlife Service, which traps and kills the grizzlies. The Forest Service said the new policy does not increase grazing because it is counted by plots of land rather than acreage.

Garrity pointed out groups are working to restore the grizzly bear, which is currently listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. He added the Forest Service is not doing its part to help achieve balance.

"There's about a thousand grizzly bears in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem," Garrity reported. "There's hundreds of thousand of cattle. We don't have a shortage of cattle in this country but grizzly bears are threatened with extinction."

The federal judge could overturn the new grazing rules or order a complete environmental review.

From Little Red Riding Hood to the Halloween thriller "Wolf Man," stories often paint wolves as scary creatures but conservationists argued it is the wrong view.

Most gray wolves across the contiguous U.S. are protected under the federal Endangered Species Act. An exception includes the Northern Rocky Mountain population in parts of Wyoming, Idaho and Montana, where states are in charge of managing wolf populations.

Eric Clewis, senior Northern Rockies representative for Defenders of Wildlife, said wolves have proved polarizing in recent years but they do not need to be.

"The preferred outlook really is just wolves as a native wildlife species on the landscape, rather than treating it as either this pure icon of wilderness or this just bloodthirsty animal that's out there trying to reduce elk or deer populations or decimate livestock," Clewis urged.

The gray wolf was one of the first species listed under the 1973 federal Endangered Species Act, when he said the population was "pretty much wiped out." He believes people should "take pride" in the recovery of the wolves so far.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which oversees endangered species, announced a first-ever National Recovery Plan for the species, with an expected completion date at the end of next year. The agency said in a news release it plans to continue to work with tribes and states to "craft enduring solutions."

Clewis argued recent actions by state agencies have been misguided.

"We've had a whole suite of bills passed in all three states that are aimed more at reducing the wolf population than actually managing it based on any biological justification or recent science," Clewis explained.

The Fish and Wildlife Service noted Idaho and Montana had recently passed laws "designed to substantially reduce" the wolf populations there, "using means and measures that are at odds with modern professional wildlife management."

"The Creature from the Black Lagoon" is a scary story told around Halloween, but conservationists say the real danger in Georgia's swamps is how humans mistreat the wetlands.

The group Defenders of Wildlife is launching its "Real Scary Movies" campaign to show how pollution, overuse and habitat loss are the real danger to places such as the iconic Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge.

Christian Hunt, a senior federal lands policy analyst for Defenders of Wildlife, said while the swamp's alligators, snakes and other creatures can be scary, humans remain the wetland's biggest threat.

"The true threat is how people manage wetlands. It's through pollution, mining, or the draining and conversion of wetlands and swamps. The only horror, the only creature, if you will, is our treatment of the places we vilify," he said.

October 13 through 19 is also National Wildlife Refuge Week, a time to visit America's network of lands and waters that conserve and protect our wildlife heritage. During this time, entrance fees to many refuges will be waived.

The Okefenokee refuge is home to hundreds of species, many listed as threatened or endangered. Hunt said nearby operations such as power plants and other industries can cause damage through pollution, mining, or draining swamps.

"Frankly, many people are scared of wilderness," he explained. "They're scared of the wild, and they create villains, such as, say, the creature of the Black Lagoon, to rationalize that fear."

Hunt added groups such as Defenders of Wildlife are working to preserve refuges like the Okefenokee, and says if those lands are damaged or destroyed, they might be gone for good.

"They protect some of the last vestiges of wilderness, particularly in the Southeast. It's hard to quantify what would be lost if we were to lose these places, but the loss would certainly be immense," he contended.