As the Elk Fire raged in Yucca Valley and Joshua Tree National Park, local environmental activists gathered Thursday, May 26, for a rally to support protections for the western Joshua Tree, a species that biologists say is threatened by rising temperatures, development and fires. The Center for Biological Diversity petitioned the state Fish and Game Commission in 2019 requesting that California list the western Joshua tree as a threatened species. Last month, the Department of Fish and Wildlife released a review recommending that the Fish and Game Commission not go through with listing the species as threatened, primarily because they cannot determine with current information how climate change will affect the species.

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.”

A “glampsite,” or glamor campsite, development known as Flamingo 640 is proposed in the high desert north of Yucca Valley.  This project has created a stir among environment and wildlife protection groups, along with residents who already feel besieged by the recent additions of hundreds of short-term rentals throughout the area. A music venue and a helicopter pad are also considered within the proposed project.

Residents opposing Flamingo 640 have found an ally in the Mojave Desert Land Trust, which has taken stewardship to conserve more than 100,000 acres of prime desert habitat since it was established in 2006.

A fast-moving fire in Oro Grande earlier this year burned more than 30 acres in a conservation area along the Mojave River where endangered and threatened species are known to live, according to a nonprofit.

The Mojave Desert Land Trust reported more than 300 trees were also lost in the “protected wildlife haven” known as Palisades Ranch after a blaze in March.

The Heritage Fire burned roughly 500 acres in total before firefighters extinguished it.

Seeds are vital to life on earth. Much of the food humans and animals eat, the fabric we wear and use daily, and the plants that keep our landscapes beautiful and healthy, are created from seeds. Seeds are also the foundation for restoring plant communities and habitat. In California’s Mojave Desert region, invasive species, wildfire, and drought are negatively affecting native plant communities and the species that depend on them, such as the federally threatened desert tortoise. Habitat restoration is critical for the desert tortoise who need specific annual and perennial native flowers for food, and native shrubs for cover.