The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that the Joshua tree may need protection under the Endangered Species Act after a petition by an environmental group argued that climate change could decimate nearly all of the trees by the end of this century. The wildlife service found the petition has “substantial information” that warrants a year-long review by the agency to evaluate threats to the species and determine whether it should be listed as threatened with extinction, according to a Federal Register notice. If the tree is listed, it could gain new protections, such as critical habitat designations that could restrict development. The petition was written by a wildlife biologist with Denver-based WildEarth Guardians. Some models predict that if global warming trends continue, 90 percent of the trees will be gone by 2100. Making things worse is an invasive grass called red brome that has flourished in Joshua tree habitat. This plant doesn’t directly hurt the trees, but it dries up and provides fuel for hotter and more frequent wildfires. Wildfires in Joshua Tree National Park, for instance, used to be rare, occurring every 50 to 100 years. But in the 1970s, the frequency of fires in the park increased to every three to 10 years, according to USGS. “These iconic trees are an irreplaceable part of the Mojave Desert and the American landscape,” the petition said. “Because of their nature, efforts to save them must look to the future on a time scale of decades, if not centuries.”
