The Dome fire decimated one of the largest concentrations of the Eastern species ( Yucca jaegeriana) when flames tore through the northern Mojave National Preserve near the California-Nevada border. Joshua trees are recognized as two separate species by many scientists. “Additional climate change in the direction of more extreme heat and drought could potentially be catastrophic for some plants.” “But they can be vulnerable to climate change in the sense that they can often be close to their ecological tolerance limits,” says Baldwin, curator of UC Berkeley’s Jepson Herbarium, which focuses on the native flora of California. Plants that live in extreme desert environments are often viewed as tough, hardy species. Interviews with NPS project organizers, volunteers and experts including botanist Bruce Baldwin of the University of California, Berkeley, highlight the Joshua tree’s ecological importance as well as the challenges to its recovery in the face of climate change. As part of that undertaking, in December 2021, the US National Park Service, along with several volunteers, began an effort to plant thousands of Joshua tree seedlings. An estimated 1.3 million Joshua trees were lost.īut conservationists are determined to help repair this fragile ecosystem. In August 2020, the Dome Fire burned through more than 40,000 acres of Joshua tree forest on the Mojave National Preserve, leaving a graveyard of blackened trees.
CREDIT: PRODUCED BY TIÊN NGUYỄN FOR KNOWABLE MAGAZINE
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