California’s Biggest Fire Is Burning a Desert — And Joshua Trees
The York Fire is threatening the rare plants, which live only at specific elevations in the Mojave Desert.
Photographer: Ty O'Neil/AP Photo
California’s biggest fire this year is torching a place that, until recently, rarely burned: the high desert, where plant coverage is sparse. And the flames this week are tearing through one of the planet's only habitats for the Joshua Tree, an icon of the American West.
The plant, known for its thin, twisting limbs and spiky leaves, lives only at specific elevations in the Mojave Desert, its range limited to a handful of southwestern states. The York Fire erupted Friday in the Mojave National Preserve and has now scorched 82,400 acres straddling the Nevada border, burning an unknown number of Joshua trees in the process.