Planting Baby Joshua Trees | Return to the Desert #3

During the summer of 2020 - it is safe to say - the world had its hands full even before a fire began near Cima Dome on August 15. Caused by a lightning strike, it grew rapidly for the first 36 hours, aided by weather conditions and a lack of available firefighting resources. During this period the Dome Fire burned more than a quarter of the Cima Dome Joshua tree forest, one of the largest and densest populations of Joshua trees known in the world. By the time the fire was contained on August 24, there were no human injuries or fatalities, but more than 1.3 million Joshua Trees had been incinerated as 43,273 acres burned.

2020 Dome Fire boundaries.

We visited shortly after the fire, and what we found was eye-opening. While the burn intensity varied, most of the damage was catastrophic and nearly all above ground vegetation had not survived.

Total destruction.

This destruction, coupled with Joshua Trees' poor seed dispersal - a tree only distributes seeds at a pace of ~100 feet every 20 years - was devastating. Even more alarming was the fact that Cima Dome had been designated as a refuge for the species as the Earth's climate is predicted to change in the coming years. So, the Mojave National Preserve organized a series of volunteer events to begin the reforestation of Cima Dome. These annual, two-week long events began in fall 2021, with a goal of planting 1,000 trees per year through fall 2024 would ensure that there are trees - and more importantly, a seed source - within the badly affected areas of the burn so they may reestablish themselves naturally before the effects of climate change impact sustainability of the population on Cima Dome.

I'd wanted to go every year, but every year, something had come up. With 2024 being the final year of planting, it was time to spend a couple days giving back to a place that has provided so many wonderful adventures.

The day has finally come to plant some baby Joshua Trees. Let's go!

Hurry up and wait.

Better late than never for "how to use a shovel" orientation.

Planting Day 1

It was shortly before 9:00am - only an hour after we were supposed to arrive - that we pulled into the parking area at the Valley View Ranch for our safety briefing and orientation. Normally, this might be considered a problem, but we were lucky enough to arrive with Mike @mk5. A venerable celebrity in this circle, and he assured the good folks with the NPS that we'd be no - or at least, no more than he was - trouble at all, and that - most importantly - we would happily carry trees.

This was mostly good enough, and so after signing a few bits of paper to relieve the NPS of any responsibility should we get lost, fall down a mine shaft, or accidentally impale ourselves on the prickly new leaves of the Joshua Trees we were planting, we piled into our trucks and headed toward our planting sites for the day.

We could have planted just about anywhere, but there were some very specific coordinates where we were supposed to plant our treelings.

Our route to the first site was rather circuitous. Both @mrs.turbodb and I made note of this fact and ensured that a more direct path was taken to subsequent locations.

There were three tree planting sites that we were responsible for on this, our first day of planting. For each site, we brought along six trees, four gallons of water, and some chicken wire to protect the cute little trees from becoming dinner for cute little bunnies once we were done. Oh, and some numbered dog tags for the trees, because "science."

Reaching the first site, we all got to work planting or - in the case of Mike and myself - making ourselves useless. Three shovels to our group of six offered everyone a bit of down time if they so desired, so that wasn't really a problem. Plus, it meant that we could get competitive with our cameras, clearly a mistake on my part after seeing Mike's amazing - and my mediocre - shots once the trip was over.

The perfect spot for this little tree to thrive!

"I love you little Joshua Tree." -Mike

Mike and I weren't entirely useless. We - and by "we," I mean Mike - brought over some water while munching on his Lunchables.

Look, we planted twins!

Some of the babies were planted just north - and thus in the shade - of "nurse plants," like this fallen Joshua Tree.

Over the next five hours, we carried 18 trees - and the requisite supplies to plant them - to three different planting locations along a 3-mile route on the western slopes of Cima Dome. In each location, we'd plant three trees in the open and three protected by nurse plants, recording the exact coordinates of each tree, along with a few vital details, so that they could be checked up on in a year - and hopefully in another five - to see how they were doing.

Headed to the next site.

With 18 trees, we weren't making much of a dent in the 1.3 mills ion that once called this home.

Planting a tree.

I have to say, planting trees in the desert is tough work. I thought we'd be done in an hour - or perhaps two - but by the time we were done at the third site and Mike had finished lecturing his tree to "say no to drugs," it was well past lunchtime and getting on towards dinner.

Luckily, no one noticed that @mrs.turbodb were both thoroughly cooked - having forgotten to pack along sunscreen - and we escaped a Donner-party situation that may have easily transpired.

After a quick photo, we all made a beeline for the Valley View Ranch and the sandwich fixings that awaited us upon our return.

Planting Day 2

If planting day 1 had been a huge success on paper - and also resulted in us sleeping very well - it'd also taught us a lesson that we'd be able to act on reasonably quickly: we should choose a planting sites that were a little nearer the road on day 2. Carrying those trees, water, shovels, and miscellaneous other supplies to the truck might not be so difficult, but lugging them nearly two miles through the desert is a job for people much younger than we might fancy ourselves to be.

What it didn't teach us was timeliness. With another "shovel secrets" orientation scheduled for 8:00am sharp, Mike's request for an initial 8:00am - to be followed 15 minutes later by a second, more frantic - wake up call meant that we would surely be just as late as we'd been the previous morning.

That's OK though, because we all know the best way to use a shovel is by watching someone else use it.

I hoped that the cloud cover I encountered when I climbed down the ladder would stick around, so planting on the second day would be a little cooler.

We've seen a lot of Joshua Trees, but some of the mature specimens here on Cima Dome are quite nice. And the clouds were looking smart, too!

It's always a "thumbs up" morning when you wake up in the driver's seat and have a beer to empty before starting your day.

Dang, we were going to miss our "how to use a shovel" orientation. Again.

We may have been late to treeling orientation on the first day, but we were so late on the second day that all the shovels had already been spoken for and carried off in a multitude of directions by the time we arrived. Luckily, we always carry a full-sized shovel to extract ourselves from situations we should know better than to find ourselves in, and Mike had a three-quarter sized shovel that he'd picked up at an army surplus store in case he stumbled on a body that needed burying, so after picking two locations reasonably near the road, we loaded up on trees, water, and a bunch of tags and drove ourselves right back to down the road towards our previous nights camp.

Yep, we were only a couple hundred feet from the spot where we'd feasted on fish tacos when we pulled the Tacomas to the side of the road and started digging!

If we'd camped here, Mike could have woken up even later. Or, at the very least, given his extra beer to a baby Joshua Tree.

In addition to the trees we were planting, it was extremely encouraging to see natural new growth in many places!

We had a lot of fun on day 2 - probably because there was a lot less hiking - but that didn't mean we were any better at getting work done.

I don't know exactly what time we were done planting on day 2, but though it was a whole lot earlier than day 1, it was still lunch time as soon as the last tree went in the ground. Today, @mrs.turbodb was making sandwiches for everyone, which were expertly executed with the help of some spicy mayo that Mike had thrown in the fridge when I'd texted to let him know that I'd conveniently left our condiments 1,000 miles to the north when I'd packed up the Tacoma for the drive to the desert.

I might be old, but I'm definitely forgetful.

Anyway, lunch was delicious as always and after dropping the empty tree containers at the Valley View Ranch, we had four hours of sunlight left in the day. With four-and-a-half hours of driving to get to our next camp site, we were right on time. Our time.

We got some nasty looks as we pulled up on the wrong side of the ROAD CLOSED sign that blocked the general public from Cima Road. Little did they know that our tree planting prowess afforded us special privileges.

Headed for the Turtle Mountains, I radioed to Mike that he was likely to find my rate of travel a bit on the slow side. Knowing that he needed fuel, I suggested that we could catch up with him in Searchlight - or even Needles - if he wanted to travel at a more reasonable speed.

He was surprisingly amenable to the slower speeds, which I later discovered was because it allowed him to post this on the internet.

It turned out that the slower speeds were a good thing, because just as we were nearing Arrowhead Junction, I spotted a BNSF train approaching on the tracks. Knowing how much Mike enjoys these beasts - not that I'm any different, mind you - we pulled to the side of the road for a few photos of the locomotives as they rumbled past.

Or at least, that's what I thought we were stopping for pictures of...

I'd been so careful to not present any too-good-to-pass-up shots until this point, but all of a sudden, Mike's camera wasn't on the train at all. But hey, I do play the role of super-dork flawlessly.

To get back at him, I've cropped his truck out of this photo. Take that Mike!

Turns out that for all his ribbing about speeds, our slow progress south allowed Mike to fix numerous broken bits on his truck - with only minor swerving in my rearview mirror - while also noticing that he had more than enough fuel to travel 50 miles further than he'd though possible as we'd exited the Preserve.

An hour later and we were on dirt again, once again racing the sunset toward camp.

Vroom, vroom.

At least I got the hood off and the hat on this time!

Castle Mountain was looking nice in the evening light.

Ultimately, the race to camp was won by the sun, but none of that mattered as I set up our tent, @mrs.turbodb setup the kitchen, and Mike setup the mood lights and American flag. It was a perfect camp, punctuated by the brilliant colors on the horizon. It'd be our last night together, and it was shaping up to be a good one.

Doesn't get much better than this. Unless there's cake.

Even the sky seemed happy.

Dinner this evening was on us, and we whipped up a half dozen taco-rittoes with guacamole to enjoy around the campfire as we chatted the night away. At some point, Mike got up and fiddled around on his tailgate, ultimately placing the Dutch oven over the propane fire ring for a few minutes while I wandered off for a few night shots.

The night shots didn't work out, but just as I moseyed back into camp, the smell of something sweet was caught in the wind.

Pineapple upside-down cake!

I'm not sure exactly how many pieces of cake I ate - perhaps three or four? - but it was amazing. The fact that he'd pulled it off - without burning - was a sure sign that his self-deprecation is 100% show. Most likely, this guy is a Michelin star chef in Tacoma clothing.

Eventually @mrs.turbodb and I rolled ourselves away from the remaining few pieces of cake and the warmth of the campfire. We'd had a great time hanging out with Mike for a few days, and I was especially glad that he'd finally gotten me out to do some planting!

While we caught up on our shut-eye, Mike was handily capturing the shots I'd been stymied at just a couple hours earlier. Sheesh!

 

 

 

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