The Mojave Desert Land Trust recently acquired 50 acres that had been slated to be razed for development in Joshua Tree. The Joshua trees on the five parcels at Alta Loma and Alta Avenue had been marked with ribbons by the prior owners to mark them for removal. On Tuesday, volunteers held a “free the trees” event and removed the ribbons from the trees. The acreage, which the Land Trust has named Bobcat Valley, is a wildlife corridor for bobcats and a habitat for desert tortoises. The Land Trust’s Conservation director Frazier Haney said the organization was alerted to the development three years ago by neighbors.
Earlier this month, the Mojave Desert Land Trust transferred 110 parcels of land, totaling 3,100 acres, to the Mojave National Preserve. The lands, which contain forests of juniper, Mojave yucca, and Joshua trees, also include a century-old home site that was the setting for the history book Maruba: Homesteading in the Lanfair Valley. Over the past decade, MDLT has conveyed 453 parcels, totaling about 23,000 acres, to National Park Service.
