California: Thousands of Joshua trees are being shredded onsite to make room for solar panels

More than 3,500 majestic Joshua trees in California’s Mojave Desert are being shredded onsite to make way for thousands of solar panels under a plan approved by California and Kern County officials.

The sprawling solar project will produce intermittent energy on 2,300 acres of land near the small towns of Boron and Desert Lake. It is not clear whether any of the electricity produced at the solar site will serve some nearby communities. But the project’s developer, California-based Avantus, says contracts have been signed to deliver some of the power to Silicon Valley Clean Energy and Central Coast Community Energy, both are non-profits that provide green energy to homes in more affluent coastal communities, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Even though many of the trees are estimated to be between 100 and 200 years old, government approval of the solar project in 2021 pre-dated a state decision to protect the Joshua tree under the California Endangered Species Act and last year’s enactment by the legislature of the Joshua Tree Conservation Act, which bans unpermitted killing of the trees. As a result, the targeted trees are defenceless.

Now that the fate of the Joshua trees has been sealed, the developer is at pains to justify the Aratina Solar Project by citing its role in combatting manmade climate change.

“Avantus is working to preserve native Mojave plants like Joshua Trees while also preserving California’s ability to achieve its clean energy goals – and the economic and climate benefits that come with them,” the company said. “While trees will be impacted during project construction, vastly more Joshua Trees are being threatened by climate change caused by rising greenhouse gas emissions, which the Aratina solar project directly addresses.” 

The company provides no evidence for its claim that Joshua trees “are being threatened by climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions.”