Judge rules against decision not to protect Joshua tree

• A Los Angeles federal judge ruled against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision to deny Endangered Species Act protections for the Joshua tree.
• The judge determined the USFWS failed to adequately consider climate change’s impact on the trees’ survival.
• The ruling comes after WildEarth Guardians sued the USFWS twice, arguing climate change and wildfires threaten the Joshua tree’s existence.

A Los Angeles federal judge has ruled that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision not to provide Endangered Species Act protections for the imperiled Joshua tree is unlawful, according to court papers obtained on Thursday.

U.S. District Judge Wesley L. Hsu ruled Monday that the USFWS decision to not provide ESA protections for the Joshua tree is illegal and sidesteps climate science.

WildEarth Guardians sued the USFWS twice in Los Angeles to secure federal projections for the Joshua tree after initially petitioning to list the Joshua tree as “threatened” in 2015. The two species of Joshua tree, Yucca brevifolia and Yucca jaegeriana, face severe climate impacts that will cause the desert icon to become functionally extinct by the end of the century without immediate and robust action, according to the environmental organization.

“The agency’s decision, for a second time, reflected a massive disconnect from what the best available science shows — that climate change and wildfire will prevent Joshua trees from successfully recruiting new generations over the coming years,” Jennifer Schwartz, managing attorney for WildEarth Guardians, said in a statement. “I feel hopeful that a federal court recognizes the need to actually assess these risks to the Joshua tree’s survival. Now it’s up to the service to actually follow the court’s order.”

Hsu agreed with conservationists on all claims, determining “that the service has not provided a rational explanation as to why climate change alone does not threaten the species to become threatened or endangered.”

WildEarth Guardians said the USFWS’ analysis failed to adequately take into account climate change modeling that clearly shows Joshua trees run the risk of extinction due to increasing temperature, drought and wildfire.

The court order states that the USFWS “provides no explanation as to why it did not use current trends and standards regarding greenhouse gas emissions as a basis for its decision, when this data currently is available.”

WildEarth Guardians has been fighting for federal protections for the Joshua tree since the organization’s initial petition to list the species as “threatened” under the ESA in September 2015, citing the severe impacts of climate change on the native succulent.

In August 2019, the USFWS first denied listing protection for what it clarified were actually two distinct species of Joshua tree — eastern Joshua tree (Yucca jaegeriana) and western Joshua tree (Yucca brevifolia) — because it believed neither species was likely to face a danger of extinction in the next 80 years, according to WildEarth Guardians.