Natural History Wanderings

The San Francisco Chronicle reports

The otherworldly and iconic Joshua tree, subject of album covers, postcards and untold numbers of Instagram photos, could be listed as a threatened species in California to protect it from desert development and eventual extinction — but state wildlife officials have signaled opposition to the new status.

Next Wednesday, the state Fish and Game Commission will consider whether the twisted, spiky trees, which grow in the Mojave Desert and Great Basin in southeastern California, warrant protection as a threatened species under the state’s Endangered Species Act.

Read more at  This iconic California tree could go extinct. But some officials are wary of naming it ‘threatened’