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https://apnews.com/article/joshua-trees-climate-change-california-48b7d86a4438d039f38b79b2c5bd9628>
"The California Department of Fish and Wildlife has released a new plan to
protect the state’s iconic Joshua trees, which are imperiled by wildfires,
human development and climate change.
The 294-page draft plan includes calls for avoiding or minimizing direct and
indirect impacts from overgrazing, pesticide use and unauthorized off-roading;
relocating trees when projects require their removal or could harm them; and
identifying and protecting lands where they could thrive in a future projected
to be drier and hotter.
“In many ways, it’s a good comprehensive plan of the things we need to do if
the western Joshua tree is going to survive the very, very difficult decades
ahead,” said Brendan Cummings, conservation director with the Center for
Biological Diversity, a nonprofit that in 2019 petitioned to list the western
Joshua tree as threatened under the state’s Endangered Species Act.
The conservation plan is a requirement of the
Western Joshua Tree Conservation
Act that passed last year, making it the first law in the state to protect a
species from the threats of climate change. The law also prohibits anyone from
killing, damaging or removing a tree without a state permit.
The plan lists criteria and attributes to help identify land that should be
prioritized for conservation, such as large areas with Joshua trees or areas
with a high density of healthy and adult trees. It also suggests protecting
regions where there is low risk of such threats as fires, invasive species and
development, and where pollinators like moths or small mammal seed dispersers
exist. It aims to identify these lands by December 2025 and permanently protect
70% of them by 2033.
The plan also calls on land managers and wildfire responders to create
procedures to reduce and fight wildfires that threaten the species and their
habitat, and develop measures to minimize impacts from rehabilitating burned
areas. That includes protecting trees, replanting lost ones and other native
species, and controlling invasives.
But as the proposed plan notes, its effectiveness and the survival of the trees
will depend largely on whether humanity can limit and reduce the planet-warming
greenhouse gas emissions from burning coal, oil and gas that are causing
climate change.
Under a business-as-usual scenario, climate change could wipe out most, if not
all, of the tree’s habitat, Cummings said.
“Assuming we can keep to a mid-level emissions trajectory, we have a very good
chance of saving the species if all the things outlined in this plan are
carried out,” he said. “And primarily that’s doing what we can to protect as
many of them as possible.”
The draft plan will have to be approved by the California Fish and Game
Commission."
Via Frederick Wilson II.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
