U.S. Department of the Interior National Park Service Joshua Tree National Park Resource Stewardship Strategy Joshua Tree National Park Resource Stewardship Strategy Recommended by: ________________________________________________________________________ Chief of Resources Management, Joshua Tree National Park Date Approved by: ________________________________________________________________________ Superintendent, Joshua Tree National Park Date Summary Joshua Tree National Park preserves the scenic, natural, and cultural resources repre- sentative of the Colorado and Mojave Deserts’ rich biological and geological diver- sity, cultural history, wilderness, recreational values, and outstanding opportunities for education and scientific study. Joshua Tree National Park In the early 1920s, road development and homesteading laws prompted an influx of cactus poachers and land developers to the desert lands north of Palm Springs, California. Recognizing the need to preserve the desert as a natural area, con- servationists led by Minerva Hamilton Hoyt founded the International Deserts Conservation League. The League worked towards the goal of establishing parks to preserve desert landscapes. Minerva prepared a recommendation for setting aside more than a million acres across the Mojave and Colorado Deserts. In 1936, Joshua Tree National Monument was added to the National Park Service system to protect the unique assembly of natural resources brought together by the junction of two of California’s deserts. In 1950, Congress redrew the monu- ment boundaries, reducing it to approximately 560,000 acres. The 1994 California Desert Protection Act reincorporated much of the land withdrawn in 1950 and established the monument as Joshua Tree National Park. Today, Joshua Tree National Park maintains some of the most culturally, geo- logically, and biologically rich public land in California. The park encompasses 794,000 acres, of which 595,000 are wilderness. The park lies within a 3.5 hour drive of more than 18 million people. Close proximity of this large urban popula- tion to the park’s vast wilderness, viewsheds, and natural resources has caused the park to grow in popularity. The varied ecosystems and diverse habitats of the park are home to approximate- ly 750 plants, 52 mammals, more than 250 species of birds, 25 varieties of snake, and 18 species of lizards. Humans have also occupied the land we know today as Joshua Tree National Park for at least 8,000 years. The first group known to inhabit the area was the Pinto culture. Today, at least 15 tribes maintain an affilia- tion with the park. The park preserves a diverse set of prehistoric archaeological resources which include seasonal camps, rock-shelters, milling sites, lithic and ceramic scatters, and rock art sites. In the 1800s, cattlemen drove their cows into the area for the ample grass avail- able at the time and built water impoundments for them. Miners dug tunnels through the earth looking for gold and made tracks across the desert with their trucks. Homesteaders began filing claims in the 1900s. The park protects 501 known archeological sites, 88 historic structures, 19 cultural landscapes, and houses 123,253 items in it’s museum collections. Joshua Tree National Park sits along one of the world’s most active earthquake fault zones, the San Andreas Fault, and is located along two geologically-diverse mountain ranges. Geologic processes have played and continue to play a major role in shaping the mountains, valleys, and basins of the park that serve as the foundation for the park’s biological and cultural resources. The natural fluvial processes of the southwestern United States have also served to shape distinct landscapes across the park. The park provides a world-class laboratory for un- derstanding these geological processes. The park also provides a world renowned rock climbing area, while the park’s unusual geology, particularly its monzogran- Joshua Tree National Park Draft Resource Stewardship Strategy iii ite formations, provides some of the park’s most iconic viewsheds. Resource Stewardship Strategy As stewards of Joshua Tree National Park’s natural and cultural resources, park managers recognize the importance of developing a comprehensive approach to resource management. Such an approach must be based on science and scholarship. The underpinnings of this Resource Stewardship Strategy (RSS) include the draft Director’s Order 2-1, Resource Stewardship Planning, the 2004 NPS’ Program Standards: Park Planning, and NPS’ Management Policies 2006. Additionally, following a review of the park’s enabling legislation and legislative documents, twenty-six fundamental resources and values (FRVs) were identified in the park’s draft Foundation Statement that will direct management activities at Joshua Tree National Park. The list of FRVs included within the RSS has been revised to from the original 26 found in the Foundation Statement to 19 FRVs for purposes of clarity and logic. Joshua Tree National Park developed this Resource Stewardship Strategy around the following fundamental resources and values: • Biological diversity and healthy ecosystem function • Interconnectivity of California desert lands • Oases and other riparian areas • Recreational opportunities and values • Wilderness values and wilderness accessibility • Ever-expanding knowledge base • Opportunity to understand, apply, and share this knowledge to benefit the park and beyond • Geological resources and desert landforms • Hydrological resources • Night sky • Clean and breathable air • Natural quiet • Viewsheds • Historic and prehistoric archeology • Cultural anthropology • History • Historic structures iv • Cultural landscapes • Museum collections of archives, natural history specimens, and archeological artifacts These 19 fundamental resources and values are the systems, structures, processes, experiences, scenery, sounds, and other features key to achieving the park’s pur- pose and maintaining its significance. These resources and values warrant primary consideration during planning and management because they are essential to achieving Joshua Tree National Park’s purpose and mission. All divisions will col- laborate in a holistic manner to protect these fundamental resources and values. Status of Knowledge The park has long recognized the importance of making decisions based on sci- ence and scholarship. To fully inform the Resource Stewardship Strategy planning process, it was essential for park staff to review and understand the depth, breadth and implications of scientific research that has been performed on park resources and related topics to date. This knowledge base, referred to in this document as the status of knowledge, was assessed to identify available and relevant sources of information and acknowledge data gaps that currently exist. Appendix B provides a summary of this status of knowledge for each fundamental resource and value and includes a list of bibliographic citations. Major Threats Joshua Tree National Park enlisted regional and Washington specialist support for assessing major threats to park fundamental resources and values. Of the many threats identified, air pollution, climate change, and land use intensification (including habitat conversion) were recognized as the most important drivers of change and/or constraints to management. Park resources and resource manage- ment in Joshua Tree NP will continue to be strongly affected by conditions and changes that occur outside park boundaries. Section 2.6.3, Status of Knowledge of the Changing Environment, provides a brief synopsis of the known and projected threats from external drivers (related figures to this section appear in Appendix F). In 2007, Joshua Tree National Park was one of the first parks to participate in the NPS climate change scenario planning process. Appendix C of this RSS summa- rizes the work done through the 2007 workshop and revisits the latest historic and projected climate change trends for the region to validate the scenarios generated during the 2007 workshop. Climate change may be the single biggest threat to park resources; as a result, Joshua Tree National Park has woven strategies to address climate change throughout the document. Appendix G extracts activities from the comprehensive strategies and divides them into seven tables that represent climate change adaptation strategies, known to the park as the Rs (Reduce, Resilience, Representation, Restoration, Refugia, Reconnaissance, and Relationships). The Rs are discussed in detail in Chapter 4, followed by the potential activities that the park hopes to accomplish as a climate change adaptation strategy. These strategies provide good preparation for future events, and represent low risk with respect to influences from the three plausible climate futures (Appendix C). Joshua Tree National Park Draft Resource Stewardship Strategy v Comprehensive Strategies The Resource Stewardship Strategy serves as an analytic tool that distills management objectives from the qualitative statements of a park’s priority resources; identifies current threats, opportunities and knowledge gaps; lays out sets of activities designed to meet management objectives; and compiles these activities into comprehensive strategies. Prior to creating comprehensive strategies, parks are encouraged to identify sets of reference conditions and condition targets for each fundamental resource and value; comprehensive strategies should be laid out in a manner that inches the park closer to