Morongo Basin residents are in an uproar over a music video that shows a British singer spray painting a Joshua tree and cholla cactus. Beth Orton filmed the video for her song “1973” on a vacant Joshua Tree lot said to be owned by the Noah Purifoy Foundation; in the video, released online Friday, and which has since been taken down, she and other people spray paint the tree and cactus green, blue, red, and orange. Orton has apologized on her Facebook page: “I am so sorry. I feel sick with disgust. I was told the tree was already dead. … Please let me know what I can do to help make some kind of amends. I did not direct the video and was following direction but now I know what I have been part of I feel utterly devastated and of course take responsibility for my part. I am truly and deeply sorry.” A spokeswoman for the Noah Purifoy Foundation told Z107.7 News that the foundation never received a request, nor did it give Orton’s crew permission, to film on the property, “and never would have allowed such a thing.” A petition on Change.org is asking Orton to donate to the Mojave Desert Land Trust to pay for cleaning up the defaced vegetation.
