(CN) — A California judge on Wednesday rebuffed an attempt by a group of business organizations to prevent the western Joshua tree from being included on the state's list of endangered species.
Fresno County Superior Court Judge Kristi Culver Kapetan in Fresno denied a request by the California Business Properties Association and other construction and farming groups to order the state to remove the tree as a "candidate" for protection under the California Endangered Species Act, which makes it illegal to cut the trees down for real estate development without a special permit.
The 2020 decision by the state's Fish and Game Commission to provide interim protection to the trees until a final review by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, expected in April, was supported by sufficient evidence, Kapetan found.
“Joshua trees and their fragile desert ecosystem just scored a huge victory,” Brendan Cummings, conservation director with the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement. “Before state protections took effect, developers were bulldozing Joshua trees by the thousands to build roads, power lines, strip malls and vacation rentals.”
Mark Harrison, an attorney representing the business groups, didn't immediately respond to an email seeking comment on the ruling.
The Center for Biological Diversity asked the California Fish and Game Commission to put the trees on its endangered species list in 2019, after the Trump administration declined to provide federal protection to the trees.
The growing popularity of Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California has spurred a building boom in the town of Joshua Tree and adjacent communities, according to the conservation group. As a result, many of the namesake trees have been cut down to make way for vacation rentals and second homes.
Not far off in the Mojave Dessert, a similar construction boom is occurring in Hesperia and surrounding areas where new warehouse projects and other industrial facilities are being proposed in Joshua tree woodlands, according to the center.
Aside from construction, the trees face threats from climate change and wildfires.
Joshua trees are dying off because of hotter, drier conditions, with very few younger trees becoming established, the center said. In 2019, scientists projected the Joshua tree will be largely gone from its namesake national park by the end of the century.
A federal judge ruled in 2021 that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service acted in a way that was “arbitrary, capricious, contrary to the best scientific and commercial data available, and otherwise not in accordance with the ESA” in its decision not to list the tree under the Endangered Species Act. Although the government initially filed a notice of appeal of that ruling, it dropped the appeal late last month.
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