Joshua Tree National Park will close Thursday for cleanup operations/Kurt Repanshek file
Editor's note: This updates the caption of the downed Joshua tree to reflect that park officials later concluded the tree had been cut down prior to the government shutdown.
Illegal roads, cut down Joshua trees, and damaged federal property, along with the need to clean up garbage, prompted Joshua Tree National Park Superintendent David Smith to announce Tuesday that the park would close indefinitely on Thursday to address those impacts incurred during the ongoing partial government shutdown.
“The park will be closed until I can ensure that resources inside the park are protected," Smith said during a short phone call. "We’re hoping that the shutdown will be over soon."
While the closure will take effect 8 a.m. Thursday, the superintendent could not say how long it would last. Acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt has directed the National Park Service to use fee revenues brought in under the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act to pay for cleanup and additional law enforcement personnel. Smith said that while his park normally takes in about $9 million a year, most of that has been committed to projects. Staff was working to see how much in unobligated funds remained.
On February 1, just over three weeks after this story broke, Joshua Tree officials said the tree had been cut down prior to the partial government shutdown/NPS
Joshua Tree is a geologic showcase that is a climber's gymnasium, one that offers two different desert settings. Straddling the geographic divide that splits the Mojave Desert from an element of the Sonoran Desert, the park located about two hours east of Los Angeles in Southern California is both a day tripper's paradise and an adventurer's escape. The cooler winter months are the busiest in the park, which has made the task of preventing damage with a handful of rangers during the ongoing shutdown extremely difficult.
Last week park staff closed its campgrounds to overnight use because of sanitation problems, but many visitors ignored that closure. With just eight law enforcement rangers working during the partial government shutdown it was impossible to cover all areas of the park, which is about the size of Delaware.
"There are about a dozen instances of extensive vehicle traffic off roads and in some cases into wilderness," Smith replied when asked about the damage in the park. "We have two new roads that were created inside the park. We had destruction of government property with the cutting of chains and locks for people to access campgrounds. We’ve never seen this level of out-of-bounds camping. Every day use area was occupied every evening.
"Joshua trees were actually cut down in order to make new roads.”
Since the National Park Service was told to keep as many units of the National Park System open as possible during the partial government shutdown, but only with essential personnel, many have struggled with skeleton contingents of law enforcement rangers. With no maintenance crews to collect trash or maintain restrooms, and no budget to pay for outside help, many parks have been blighted by litter and human waste. There have been reports of illegal off-road travel, metal detecting on battlefields in the park system, and damage to resources.
Following Bernhardt's directive to use fee revenues, park staff across the country was busy seeing how much was available.
The new roads at Joshua Tree didn't run for miles, but rather jogged around gates to gain access in many cases, according to the superintendent.
“It’s short spurts for people to get around gates for the most part. They would just go out into the country, and then once 20 or 30 cars would go over it you would essentially have a new road created in pristine desert,” he said.
Illegal campsite in Joshua Tree National Park/NPS
One place that saw traffic was around Joshua Tree's Live Oak area, which is not far from the north entrance to the park.
“We had some pretty extensive four-wheel driving around the entire area to access probably our most significant tree in the park," Smith said. "We have this hybrid live oak tree that is deciduous. It is one of our kind of iconic trees inside the park. People were driving to it and camping under it. Through the virgin desert to get to this location. That would probably be a quarter-mile or so around the rock formation that is there.”
The superintendent said there also were instances of graffiti in the park this past week. Park officials were identifying additional staff and resources needed to address immediate maintenance and sanitation issues.
Monitoring a park the size of Joshua Tree, which covers 1,235 square miles and has about 20 different entrances due to dirt roads that ring the park, is extremely difficult with just eight law enforcement rangers. Were it not for the shutdown, there would have been more than 100 other "sets of eyes" to help keep an eye on visitor behavior, the superintendent said.
"We have 120 employees in the park, plus 30 associates that work for Great Basin Institute, the majority of whom are in the park every day," he said. "Those are the folks that are in the campgrounds and in the day-use areas and doing science. So you’ve got 100 sets of eyes in the park every day with folks contacting visitors."
Law enforcement rangers were to continue to patrol the park and enforce the closure until park staff completes the necessary cleanup and park protection measures.
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Comments
In this fast paced, high-tech, hurry up and go nowhere wierld there are no humans in sight just blood-thirsty animules. I was going to say I hear Noah's hammer but I hear a match striking.
Wow
Looks like that tree was dead already. I have been to this park and area before, and a few trees do appear to be dead. Vandals might have thought it would be good firewood.
Just because a tree looks dead does not excuse or justify this behavior.
I don't care if it was dead it still wasn't their decision to make or their tree to cut down. What they did was wrong and they knew it. If you wouldn't do it in front of a park ranger it's because it's wrong. You know who you are, If you don't come forward and confess to what you did and offer restitution of some form then you knew it was wrong when you did it. Only common trash behaves this way.
I totally agree. Rules are for everyone. I think one of those trees would look good in my front yard. Is it okay for me to dig one up and transplant it. Dead or not, keep your hands off!
Agreed. And even after it’s dead, it continues to be a shelter for smaller animals.
That Joshua tree was not dead! That appears to be pure vandalism. Just because you have been here once doesn't mean that you know what you are talking about. I can't believe you are even trying to defend the perpetrators of this destruction. No benefit of the doubt here. Seems to be a very unkind thing to do just because no one is looking. Shameful!
That tree was ot cut down . That is a dead rotten tree trunk. Definitely not a newly fresh cut tree . And not cut down to gain access to the area . Can easily drive around it. No tire marks on ground . More fake news for suckers
sorry sir but this tree fell over due to natural decay or as we call it dry rot
That tree is dead and fell over on it's own. Professional logger 15 years experience.
Professional Joshua “tree” logger? That’s actually hilarious.
That tree wasn't even cut down. You can tell its been weathered since it fell and that wouldn't happen in a few days. There are no tire marks or even recent footprints around it. The tree is still there showing the didn't cut it down for fire wood. And the story says they only went around gates to get back to the road that was blocked. I've been to j-tree many times, and if you've been there you'd know there's plenty of room to go around a tree and get to the roads being blocked. It was just a tree they took a photo of thinking no one would know the difference and make the story look better. Instead of just tire marks in the dirt going around a gate because the park is closed because some cry baby shut down the government.
I've never seen a Joshua tree, but I've been cutting down trees for 40 years for firewood and that tree looks alive to me.
Not to mention, anyone who's ever been camping *anywhere* should be well aware that it's never OK to cut down dead trees for firewood on land you don't own unless you have express permission to do so. And if you're in a national park, that means you NEVER cut down any tree no matter how dead and dry it is.
I do not care if the tree was dead, people have no business driving around iin this park and tearing up the land.
I hope if they catch the vandals they get big fines and are banned from ever coming into the park again.
That was a particularly ignorant statement, as if these suspects were using any form or guessed type of wisdom or intellectual knowledge to back their malicious acts. For mere firewood? That someone would cut down a supposed sick or dead Joshua tree that takes 60 years to reach maturity and some live 500+ years, is ignorant and moronic!
You obviously need some form of mental counseling if you think that is any type of a proper righteous analytical assessment to attempt to even try and cover up a criminal act of this nature to this degree of dowright undeniable WRONG.
These fools had no righteous endeavor while performing these ignorant acts, and backing them with some supposed justification is totally absurd and stupid.
FIREWOOD! Are you kidding me? They weren't allowed in the park to begin with and definitely any fool knows you don't cut down trees in a National Park let alone a Joshua Tree in Joshua National Park. The entire idea is to keep the park as natural as possible and if there is a dead tree that needs to be removed (not all do) then it's the experts to the area and foliage that make that decide which ones. Why is it that people behave like redneck low class trash the minute they think they can destroy and get away with it. I hope and pray that even tho the park was closed the camera's were on and that those responsible will pay for what they've done as well as high fines and jail time.
I call BS, that tree was dead and got blown over by high winds in cold front. More fake news here, everyone move along
even if a tree were dead, it’s a national park you are not permitted to damage or remove anything from a national park or any California state park. You can’t even pick up a rock to take from the park. follow all the rules when you go to the parks I’d like m6 grandkids to see these parks.
I see you know nothing about desert plants. They're next to impossible to kill. Many go dormant for months or even years and may appear dead, but most definitely are not. That tree was most definitely not dead. If it were the inside would be gray/white and look a lot less like wood.
Why would you try and justify any type vandalism? I believe in the article, this wasn’t the only incident.
Looks can be deceiving. Science matters. Another notch in Trumps belt for a return to regressive animalistic lawlessness and returning the country to “me me me“. Shame On all the people who showed zero respect for the park while there were no rangers there to make you do so. Toddlers.
And how does that justify the illegal activity - not to mention just downright egocentric stupidity that flies in the face of why the park exists in the first place...to enjoy the natural habitat, not destroy it regardless of its condition.
Thats no excuse, the rule specifically say you cannot take or harm any plants or wildlife. This kind of behavior is inexcusabl. I live 45 minutes from the park and love going there for all irs natural beaut, people who do these things have no respect for the land. I hope it remains clean send till the shutdown is over because we have people in our society who take advantage of these situation.
as an arborist, I can assure you that Joshua tree was not dead.
Does it really look like that tree was cut for firewood? No.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_brevifolia Please learn more about these trees. No one needs to be making excuses for these bad acts.
You don't cut down, burn, scratch your name in rock, destroy anything in a park.
Unbelievable.
Just because “a tree looks dead” does not give anyone the authority, (other than a park employee designated to do so), the right to cut down trees within the park. Whether they thought the trees were dead or not is not the issue. The fact is, this was a criminal act. The person(s) who did this damage needs to be held responsible for what they have done. Being assigned to work many hours of community service within this park, repairing/replacing/cleaning up the damage that they did, might be a good start. Someone knows who was involved. Anyone having knowledge needs to come forward with whatever information they have.
Just because the tree looks dead, doesn't justify the act of Vandalism..condoning these types of actions will only give validation to the vandals..
Please look at the photo before commenting - If they thought it would be good firewood, why didn't they cut it up and burn it?
Having lived my entire childhook in 29 Palms and ajacent to the 29 Palms Oasis and the Joshua Tree National Monument (prior to becoming a Park), it is very disconcerting to see how such a natural wonder has been pilaged by such disrespectful, selfish, and uncaring people. Unfortunately, in todays society where our government, particulary, in California, abides by no "rule of law", it isn't surprising that todays generation and the type of people that are being cultivated, with the entitlement issues, this is not surprising. Have some respect for nature and our national parks and monuments, as your children won't have these blessings if you destry them. They will also follow by your example and become selfish and uncaring people. Time to make Joshua Tree National "Park" a National "Monument" again!
Being cut down will usually kill a tree. It is pretty impossible if the tree looks dead because it has been laying on the ground for 5 weeks or because it was dead before it was cut down. If someone cut it down for firewood they probably would have burned it. That is usually what you do with firewood...
Cutting down a tree for firewood? In what park would that be legal?
It would be illegal to cut down a Joshua Trre in Joshua Tree National Park.
Not only is cutting down ANY tree in Joshua Tree illegal, it is ILLEGAL to pick up ANYTHING to use as firewood, even dead brush.
In a park named after the tree that is endangered. Not rare. Endangered. What hole do you live in or what school did you go to, to not know how to read the article that told you it was endangered.
Most actually.
Every one
EVERY PARK
.... Umm.... All of them.
Those trees are really old as old as the park. Have a little respect.
Perhaps in a park where the trees are an endangered species?
The trees themselves are a protected national landmark. That means anyone desecrating any of the trees has committed a federal crime.
They're not listed as an endangered species, nor threatened. Many have been cut down outside protected areas legally. It would certainly be illegal to cut them down or intentionally damage them without permission of the federal government according to federal and state laws. However, it‘s not because the species is specifically protected by federal or state law, but because they’re on federal land and are legally federal property. Some cities have protections in general for desert plants, but it’s more like heritage oak ordinances in my area. Here’s the law for Palmdale. Interesting rules, including a requirement to keep at least two Joshua trees per acre in a development, or that single family homes are exempt.
https://www.codepublishing.com/CA/Palmdale/html/Palmdale14/Palmdale1404....
@Submitted by Rick B. on January 9, 2019 - 3:19pm.
"Cutting down a tree for firewood? In what park would that be legal?"
That would be ANY park. Joshua Trees are not firewood. They don't grow fast and they are yucca. That was probably a 150 year old Joshua tree. Sadly I can believe so many tools do things like this. Human nature to do irrational acts of destruction.
trump's stupidity seems to be contagious.
Thst us a ridiculous statement...
It’s very sad that is the truth I absolutely agree with you on that statemen!
Trump being President has nothing to do with what these idiots are doing.
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