Victorville Daily Press: Advocates urge California to put western Joshua Tree on endangered list
A group of more than 100 people gathered for a rally at the Mojave Desert Land Trust headquarters to garner support for placing the western Joshua tree on the state’s list of endangered and threatened species.
Speakers at Thursday’s event in Joshua Tree discussed the threats to the iconic plant and the importance of the tree to other desert species, which include humans.
“It’s helping to create oxygen, it’s helping to nourish pollinators, it’s helping to sequester carbon to help mitigate our climate change,” said MDLT’s joint executive director Kelly Herbinson. “Just by being it's protecting us as a species.”
The California Fish and Game Commission is set make the final decision on June 15 and 16 whether to list the western Joshua tree as a threatened species under the California Endangered Species Act.