Joshua Tree, Threatened by Pollution and Growth, Hosts Rally

Stefan Lovgren
for National Geographic News

September 16, 2005

A music program held in California's Joshua Tree National Park this
weekend aims to literally drum up environmental support for one of the
most endangered national parks in the United States.

Organizers hope that hundreds of people will gather for Celestial Rhythms, a two-day event that will feature nature hikes and star-gazing through high-powered telescopes.

The main event, to be held in a natural outdoor rock amphitheater, is an evening of musical performances that will include a drum circle involving the audience.

Jarrod Radnich, the 23-year-old founder of the Desert Music Foundation, which is organizing the event, hopes the gathering will spotlight the desert's wonders and help build awareness of the environmental threats facing the park.

"People don't realize how ancient and fragile this desert environment is," he said. "A scraggly tree may be hundreds of years old, as old as the redwoods."

Land of Dr. Seuss

Established as Joshua Tree National Monument in 1936 and elevated to national park status in 1994, Joshua Tree National Park is part of both the Sonoran and Mojave deserts.

The nearly 800,000-acre (323,700-hectare) park is home to a variety of wildlife, including bighorn sheep and threatened desert tortoises, as well as more than 700 plant species.

But it is best known for its clumps of enormous granite boulders, which make the park one of the premier rock-climbing destinations in the world. It's also renowned, and named, for the eerie Joshua trees whose branches extend grotesquely like upraised arms.

"It's otherworldly, almost Dr. Seuss-ish," said Radnich, a musician and environmentalist who grew up next to the park.

As with many other desert communities in California, the small towns surrounding the park have seen an influx in recent years of people seeking refuge from city life. New housing and business developments, locals complain, have led to an increase in light and noise pollution.

According to one controversial proposal, an area bordering the park could be turned into the largest landfill in the contiguous United States, receiving up to 20,000 tons (18,000 metric tons) of garbage daily. Environmentalists warn that it could disturb the habitat of the endangered desert tortoises.

The National Parks Conservation Association, a Washington, D.C.-based conservation group, ranks Joshua Tree as one of the ten most endangered national parks in the United States.

Nitrogen Pollution

Air pollution, much of it originating more than a hundred miles (160 kilometers) away in Los Angeles, is a major problem. The park has recorded among the highest levels of ozone pollution of any U.S. national park. Summer visitors have complained that views are sometimes so smog-choked that they cannot see the surrounding San Gorgonios Mountains.

The desert floor is also receiving its share of nitrogen pollution, according to environmental experts.

Automobile emissions contain nitrogen, some of which is converted to nitrate or nitric acid, the form of nitrogen that is used by plants as fertilizer. This process, called nitrogen deposition, appears to have increased the productivity of invasive plant species in Joshua Tree National Park—at the expense of the desert's native plants.

"Nitrogen deposition occurs at high levels in southern California and is fertilizing our wildlands," said Edith Allen, a biologist at the University of California, Riverside. "While growers and gardeners may appreciate this free fertilizer, it promotes the growth of weedy species in our forests, shrublands, deserts, and grasslands."

"The invasion of weeds is a huge problem for maintenance of our fragile biodiversity, which is already impacted by development," said Allen, who is leading a major research project investigating the impact of nitrogen on California's wildlands, including Joshua Tree.

The most problematic invasive species in Joshua Tree is a weedy grass that not only kills native plants and animals but also serves as fuel for wildfires in the dry season.

Nearly a fifth of the park's Joshua trees have been lost to fires. The trees can live for hundreds of years, and it takes a century to replace just one.

Drum Circle

Radnich, the Celestial Rhythms organizer, says some people are not aware of the environmental problems facing the desert, because "they think it's all barren."

He said he "wanted to get attention and build environmental awareness by creating an event that reaches out to people … while still creating a sense of entertainment."

For the concert, audience members will be shuttled into a secluded amphitheater nudged into a canyon where they will join in a 200-person drum circle led by percussionist Paulo Mattioli, who has performed with artists such as Sting.

"There's no better place for this event," said Radnich. "This is the most creative landscape in the world."

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