Joshua Trees burning in California end of July, 2023 through today. Experts say nearly 2 million Joshua Trees (this fire and 2020 Dome fire) likely are “gone forever”
Pic is still from video at:
https://twitter.com/i/status/1685632894465949696
Ravaged by fire, Mojave Desert's famed Joshua trees may be gone forever
by Colton Lochhead, Las Vegas Review-JournalAUG 7, 2023
…"The Joshua trees and other plant species burned by the nearly 94,000-acre York Fire are likely to never regrow, said Debra Hughson, the preserve's deputy superintendent, leaving behind a permanent reminder of a changing climate on the preserve's landscape.
"You have just barren, blackened soil, and there's nothing left but ashes and scraggly Joshua tree stumps sticking up. That doesn't come back. It's gone forever," Hughson said.
Preserve officials don't know exactly how much of the Joshua tree forest has been burned by the latest fire. Hughson said they believe it has caused a similar level of devastation as that of the Dome Fire, which scorched the preserve in 2020 and burned an estimated 1.3 million Joshua trees—or about one-quarter of the region's contiguous Joshua tree forest.
It's hard to know what exactly will grow back, but previous fires offer a look at what may be in store for the latest area of the preserve charred by wildfire.
The once dense Joshua tree forest burned by the Dome Fire has started to transition to a grassier landscape. And while a small number of the Joshua trees in that area did manage to resprout from unburned roots, Hughson said, "it's not a juniper tree forest, nor will it ever be again."
…
Avoiding the tortoise habitat
If there is one bright spot, it's that the fire has mostly managed to avoid the critical habitat of the threatened desert tortoise located inside the preserve.
"We're thinking and hoping that most of the desert tortoise habitat was unscathed and that most of the desert tortoise are OK," Hughson said.
The desert tortoise population has been in decline for decades, and the species has been listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act dating back to 1990.
Most of the effects to the tortoise population from the fire are likely to come from motor vehicles and large equipment responding to the fire, Hughson said. That's why preserve officials implemented a 25 mph speed limit for all vehicles operating near those habitat areas.
There also have been several biologists out in the field moving tortoises off the road and guiding vehicles in an effort to minimize the chances of tortoises being killed, Hughson said.
https://phys.org/news/2023-08-ravaged-mojave-famed-joshua-trees.html
The Mojave Desert is burning in California's biggest fire of year, torching Joshua trees
Story by Grace Toohey, Alex Wigglesworth • July 30, 2023
"California's biggest wildfire of the year — burning through delicate Joshua Tree forests along the California-Nevada border — is an unusual desert blaze being fueled in part by the rapid growth of underbrush from this winter's record rains.
"The 2020 Dome fire, which burned more than 40,000 acres across the southwestern California desert — including in the national preserve, but in a different area from the York fire — destroyed an estimated 1 million Joshua trees. Crews and volunteers are trying to replant and revitalize those groves.
…“Historically, in general, deserts tended to burn fairly infrequently,” he said. “And that’s one of the reasons why you have a lot of these long-lived plants that can grow into big giant Joshua trees, or saguaros in the Sonoran Desert. But as more and more invasive plants, especially invasive grasses, have grown in desert areas, they’re able to carry fire and burn those long-lived plants and cause a change in the fire regime.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/the-mojave-desert-is-burning-in-california-s-biggest-fire-of-year-torching-joshua-trees/ar-AA1eBT8N
Next: The spiritual meaning (to many) of Joshua Tree, a national park located about two hours east of Claremont, California.