LOS ANGELES — After eight hours of tense debate, the California Fish and Game Commission on Thursday deadlocked 2 to 2 on whether to declare the western Joshua tree a threatened species, forcing continuation of discussions of the volatile issue until November.
Staff biologists had already recommended against listing the species after concluding that claims in a petition filed by environmentalists about the effects climate change will have on the living symbols of Southern California desert were premature.
They questioned the reliability of computer models suggesting the species is in decline throughout its range. They said that’s because although there has been a decline in the western Joshua tree population in certain portions of its historic range, in other areas the species numbers in the millions.
