Those include The Biggest Baddest Mother of the PollyGrind, Best Use of Nudity/Sexuality, Best Use of Violence/Gore, Most Outrageous, and Most Creative. I don’t think our existing law is sufficient.The event gave a slew of awards that are quite different than most festivals.

“The reality is this is a close call,” he said Thursday. And the answer is, we don’t know,” Jeb Bjerke, a California Department of Fish and Wildlife plant biologist, said Wednesday.ĭepartment of Fish and Wildlife Director Chuck Bonham said he didn’t sleep much Wednesday night, thinking about everything the public speakers had said. It’s just how bad it will be, and how fast. “The question is not whether climate change will be bad for the western Joshua tree.

The federal government declined to list the western Joshua tree as a protected species in 2019. Although staff ultimately recommended against listing the trees as threatened, three of the five outside peer reviewers who were asked to review the recommendation by the department disagreed with its conclusion. The 994-page report on the Joshua tree issue prepared by staff for the commission contains evidence cited by both sides during the meeting. “I think they need to have some consistency in how they protect the Joshua tree.” “Local governments are all over the board,” Commissioner Jacque Hostler-Carmesin agreed. “Local authorities have failed - woefully and inadequately - to protect the Joshua tree,” Commissioner Eric Sklar said Thursday. San Bernardino County includes the city of Joshua Tree and Joshua Tree National Park.īut an otherwise divided Fish and Game Commission was unified in saying local politicians weren’t getting the job done. In May, the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors passed an emergency ordinance to protect the trees, leveling fines of up to $20,000 for illegally moving one of the fragile trees without permission. San Bernardino County Third District Supervisor Dawn Rowe told commissioners Wednesday they could trust local politicians to get it right: “We all want to see the tree not just survive, but thrive.” Town and city council members from across the High Desert, as well as state legislators and county supervisors from San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties, urged the commission to not list the tree as a threatened species. Solar industry representatives, including solar farm workers, warned that the designation would cost jobs and slow California’s progress toward carbon-free electricity generation by 2045. But the city, like much of the High Desert, relies on home building for many of its jobs, and Smith said employment opportunities will decrease if the western Joshua tree is listed as a threatened species. Smith is the former mayor of Hesperia, which features a Joshua tree on its crest. “Listing the western Joshua tree as threatened would have permanent economic impacts on my constituents,” Assemblyman Thurston “Smitty” Smith, R-Apple Valley, told the commission Wednesday. Both endeavors will face increased restrictions on where and how they can build if the western Joshua tree is listed as a threatened species.Ībout half of the more than 220 people who spoke Wednesday, the first day of the hearing, opposed giving the trees additional legal protections, citing the economic impacts of doing so, and said local governments could protect the trees without the need for state intervention.

The land the Joshua trees occupy is also sought after by homebuilders and the solar industry, who are building solar farms in the region. She called the western Joshua tree a “lynchpin” for the desert ecosystem. “(But) we also really need thriving, healthy ecosystems.” “There are a lot of needs for land now,” Kelly Herbinson, with the Mojave Desert Land Trust, told the commission Wednesday. In the 2019 study’s worst-case scenario, the 160,000 acres of land in Joshua Tree National Park capable of supporting the iconic trees will drop to just 37 acres by 2100. Strands of trees that have stood for thousands of years will likely die off, leaving only those in the highest elevations, although continuing climate change will eventually get them too, according to researchers. Climate change has made summer temperatures in the park higher than ever, winter temperatures lower and increased drought conditions.

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