WildEarth Guardians filed a lawsuit in the federal district court for the Central District of California challenging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (FWS’s) decision not to list the Joshua tree as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The complaint alleged that the Joshua tree—“an icon of the Southern California desert”—faced eradication by the end of the century due to climate change and “other often related and synergistic threats” such as prolonged droughts, increasing fire, and habitat loss. WildEarth Guardians said FWS failed to adequately analyze and impermissibly dismissed these significant threats to habitat and also erroneously discounted and failed to adequately consider how the lack of existing regulatory mechanisms to address climate change could impact the Joshua tree. In addition, the complaint asserted that FWS arbitrarily and capriciously found that Joshua trees were not threatened throughout a significant portion of their range and failed to use best available science by disregarding models that provided information on the future status of Joshua trees.

Challenge to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's decision not to list the Joshua tree as a threatened species.

WildEarth Guardians v. Haaland

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Lawsuit Filed Challenging Decision Not to List Joshua Tree as Threatened Species

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Lawsuit Filed Challenging Decision Not to List Joshua Tree as Threatened Species

Policy instrument

Risk

Impacted group

Fossil fuel

Greenhouse gas

Economic sector

Adaptation/resilience