Posted on 06/28/2021 12:53:29 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Two home builders who destroyed 36 Joshua trees on their Prescott Avenue property were fined $18,000 in court Tuesday.
“It is unlawful to remove these trees. It is a violation that will be investigated thoroughly and prosecuted,” said Patrick Foy, a captain with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
The investigation began Feb. 11, when a Morongo Basin resident saw two local landowners uprooting Joshua trees to make way for a single-family home. They had the trees pulled from the ground and were burying them in a hole on the property, according to the prosecutor.
“A resident in the community who is faced with the same restrictions on developing property, that person was upset to see these two property owners going out and bulldozing 32 Joshua trees and destroying and burying them,” Foy said.
The witness called the CalTip poaching and pollution tip line run by the state Fish & Wildlife Department.
“The action was in progress when the tip came in — in fact the backhoe was actively knocking down and burying these trees, and our closest officer was more than two hours away,” Foy said.
“It wasn’t even his normal patrol area but because the potential crime was in progress, he ran over there and they had just wrapped up for the day. It was pretty obvious what had happened.”
According to Douglas Poston, the supervising deputy district attorney for the Morongo Basin, the wildlife officer found what was clearly a freshly dug and refilled hole.
“His investigation involved using a backhoe to re-dig the hole, where he recovered the buried Joshua trees.”
The officer presented his findings to Poston’s office and they decided to prosecute the landowners, Jeffrey Walter and Jonetta Nordberg-Walter.
The county district attorney’s office filed 36 misdemeanor charges each against Walter and Nordberg-Walter, one for each tree.
Poston said the couple represented themselves in court and cooperated with his office.
They appeared in Judge Shanon Faherty’s courtroom in Joshua Tree on Tuesday and agreed to pay $9,000 each.
“A portion of the fine has been previously paid, and the defendants may earn some additional credit toward the fine by performing volunteer work for Joshua Tree National Park or the Mojave Desert Land Trust,” Poston stated in a press release.
The $18,000 will go into the Western Joshua Tree Mitigation Fund, an account opened by the state. Fish & Wildlife documents say money in the fund pays for land where western Joshua trees will be permanently protected.
The developers also agreed to not violate any law for the diversion period, which starts at 24 months but may be terminated after 12 if they fully comply.
If they pay the fine and complete all terms, the court will dismiss the case. If not, Poston said the district attorney will proceed with prosecution.
Foy and Douglas Poston, supervising prosecutor at the district attorney’s Morongo Basin office, issued a press release about the case to spread the word on Joshua tree protections.
“We wanted to let the public know this is a real thing,” Poston said. “You can be prosecuted criminally now.”
Taking a western Joshua tree became a criminal act in September 2020, when the state Fish & Wildlife Commission made the tree a candidate for endangered or threatened species protections, Foy said.
“The population status of the western Joshua tree has justified its proposed listing and it’s something that we are certainly taking very seriously,” Foy said. “It has been a higher priority for our investigators since the commission decision.”
It is illegal to disturb, move, replant remove or kill western Joshua trees. Taking a western Joshua tree is a misdemeanor crime punishable by up to $4,100 in fines and six months in jail.
The CalTip hotline is run 24 hours a day, seven days a week at (888) 334-2258 and tip411.
Anyone with a cellphone may send an anonymous tip to Fish & Wildlife by texting “CALTIP”, followed by a space and the message, to 847411 (tip411).
Most likely not hey?
How about Norway Maples?
Or Weeping Willows?
I know one thing. A white pine for some reason will draw Lightning like no other tree. I have seen the tops blown completely off them things and the top stuck right in the ground where one of my fallers had to notch the dam thing to get it down. Then the USFS forester came out and almost threw my ass in jail for cutting an unmarked tree-the SOB.
Put a uniform on them assholes and they think they are gods gift to the world.
I live near the Bristlecone Pine Forest. About 10 years ago, they discovered a Bristlecone pine older than the 4,789 year-old Methuselah tree. It is close to 6,000 years old. The info on it has been kept hush, hush, for fear of it being vandalized.
Those things are just plain ugly. And that’s not what I call a trees. Maples, Oaks, Pine Trees, Basswood etc etc.....
They’re not even trees...they’re succulents....AND...they are a Candidate for protection...they are not yet protected in full.
No. I have Blue Spruce. Unless they die off naturally or cause me problems (I don't see how) there's no reason to cut them down.
Yep, they have created a whole extremely regulated environmental industry in Ca. Licensed contractors only, biologist services, paying for relocating species, permits, fees, studies, Etc.
It is way overboard and unsustainable. One of the main causes for the mass exodus...
Yeah, as private property owners we can do as we like with them over here. But transporting them is where you get in trouble. You can collect them from private property but to transport them legally you have to get “tags” from the DOT check station.
You have to tag the plants with the source address and the destination address. But this is also your record that you acquired them legally and not on State or Fed property. If you get caught transporting plants with no tags you are going to the clink.
If you only knew what I have seen...
Anyway, I would sooner see them transplant them than destroy them. Even common yuccas.
Now them little jumping jack cactus..you know the ones that stick in the seat of your pants if you brush up against them.
LOL.
Very familiar with the Cholla... lol
These once rained on me off the top of the buttes in the west corner there in a wind storm after a good rain. :)
Our property up north had Cholla TREES about 8ft tall.
When we cleared out lot up there we took and transplanted them all around the outside perimeter of our fence around the property. No one thought about testing the fence, could not even get through the cholla to get to the fence. lol
More than likely they got the land dirt cheap in the first place because of the abundance of trees. It’s certainly something a realtor would point out, either onsite or via photos for absentee buyers.
Yucca Valley has long required full disclosure and a permit for “removal, relocation or trimming of Joshua trees and other native plant species.” You even need a permit if a tree falls over naturally: “...under current rules, if a Joshua tree falls in someone’s driveway, the resident must go to town hall and receive a permit before it can be removed, to ensure the tree fell naturally.”. So even if the person claimed ignorance of the 2020 Law, there was still standing local ordinances prior to the 2020 law, including prohibiting mechanized land clearing within 6-40feet of a Joshua Tree, depending on size. The 2020 protection law was a result of 43,000 acres of joshua trees burning in the Dome Fire - in all the California papers as was the petition and subsequent law.
For any RE purchase, it is the buyer’s responsibility to do his due diligence on local, county and state codes - i.e., when in doubt and especially if new to the area - ask! Down the highway from the Joshua Tree Visitor’s Center, in a town that celebrates Joshua Trees, it’s hard to believe they were ignorant. They either figured in a small town of mostly poor folk they could do what they wanted, or they were so arrogant they figured they’d pay the fine and get what they wanted.
town’s previous ordinance mentioned here:
https://cronkitenews.azpbs.org/2020/07/30/joshua-trees-climate-change-protection/
map search for Prescott Ave, Yucca Valley, CA 92284
White Pines are ugly “dirty” trees that shed incredible amounts of needles and love to drop sap everywhere including on your cars. The kids and dogs would come in with sap and everything the sap stuck to into the house.
When we first moved in, my wife loved them and got mad when I trimmed some branches that were rubbing on the roof.
After two years she came to me as said: “I want them dead!”.
I picked a bunch of them off the backside of a co-worker once. He got out of the dump truck and all I heard was Son OF A B***H!
His wife worked on the festering pimples on his backside for weeks after that one.
LOL!
Yep, I have been plastered with them many times riding motorcycles... :)
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