Listen here:
Joshua Tree National Park will begin a fire management and fuel reduction program on Monday, November 13th. According to a press release by the National Park Service, park staff will be working to reduce the amount of potential fuel in areas to give extra protection to Joshua Trees if a wildfire were to spark in the park.
The entirety of Keys View Road and Covington Flats road in Joshua Tree National Park will be affected as crews remove non-native grasses and shrubs that can fuel a fire’s intensity and flame height. In years past when invasive weeds and other non-native plants weren’t as common in the desert, wildfires would travel slower and lower to the ground, doing less permanent damage to slow-growing species like the western Joshua Tree, California Juniper and Pinyon Pine. That’s because the desert has been self-regulating with its own form of fire prevention – spacing its native flora out so wildfires just aren’t as effective as spreading.
The National Park Service says that before 1965 – lightning strike fires would burn less than a quarter acre before being extinguished or extinguishing themselves. Since ‘65 these fires have grown in size and intensity – they cite the 1979 Quail Mountain fire that burned 6,000 acres and the more recent Juniper Complex fire that scorched nearly 14,000 acres in 1999. Non-native species were blamed for the quick spread of the Elk Fire in Yucca Valley in May of last year, and the areas that were scorched from fires over 20 years ago are still seeing long-term negative impacts.
The fuel-management crews start on November 13th and will work on the Covington Flats area through mid-December, and Keys View Road through early February of next year.
