Vandals Topple Joshua Trees Amid Shutdown, Igniting Outrage

Joshua Tree National Park in California is a beautiful place containing a harsh and fragile ecosystem. The park has remained open despite the federal shutdown, but it has been left unstaffed. Apparently, some off-road lovers aren't nature lovers and toppled at least one Yucca brevifolia (Joshua Tree) to gain access to areas that are off limits to recreational vehicles. I am baffled by people who are so willing to destroy (living) things just to have fun, or get a better view of water that is unobstructed by trees as happens occasionally here in Seattle. I suspect it is selfishness, they figure that they are entitled to get whatever they want even if it kills something or takes away from others.
Huffington Post Source Article

While thousands of workers remain furloughed or forced to work without pay as the government shutdown surpasses week three, the victims aren’t only human ― they’re environmental. Facing a huge staffing shortage, Joshua Tree National Park employees are unable to police the land, which spans nearly 800,000 acres of Southern California. Now, workers have noticed illegal roads and chopped down trees, the work of vandals who likely were able to wreak havoc on the area because of Washington’s ongoing dysfunction. Last Tuesday, nonprofit news outlet National Parks Traveler uploaded an image of one of the downed trees on its website. Since then, the photo, which was taken by the National Parks Service, has gone viral, provoking a wave of backlash on social media.

The reason for the felled trees was to make way for off-roading vehicles, it was reported. Among the reactions to the vandalism were shock and anger, some wondering why park visitors would commit such an act and shaming President Donald Trump for digging in his heels on the shutdown.

I hope the person(s) responsible will be caught and heavily fined. What do you think should happen to persons illegally destroying trees in a national park?

ETA: CNN reports that many illegal campsites have sprung up since the shutdown, too.

"There are about a dozen instances of extensive vehicle traffic off roads and in some cases into wilderness. We had destruction of government property with the cutting of chains and locks for people to access campgrounds," park Superintendent David Smith told National Parks Traveler. "We've never seen this level of out-of-bounds camping. Every day-use area was occupied every evening. Joshua trees were actually cut down in order to make new roads." Despite the partial government shutdown, park officials have been able to keep most of the park accessible, but on Tuesday, they announced the park would temporarily close this week so they could clean up, enforce safety and repair damage due to vandalism.

a reply to: seattlerat


If that was chopped down where are the woodchips around the trunk? The other photo in your link clearly shows another tree that split much further up the trunk and appears to be due to natural causes.

ETA: This whole story sounds really suspicious. You need to cut a single tree down to go off-roading? Why not go around. Sounds like some hysterics are being hysterical over a fallen tree that totally appears to have fallen on it's own.


ETA 2: And this does answer the age old question, if a Joshua Tree falls in the woods does it cause Trump Derangement Syndrome. The answer: Yes.

It is Federal Law
It is a felony

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

I didn't say it was cut down I said it was "toppled". It may have been pushed over with one of the vehicles, I don't know as I wasn't there. I was unable to verify that any sort of "natural" phenomena was or was not responsible. Apparently, there were witnesses to vehicles in the restricted area that was only accessible by going through the area where the tree was located.

Perhaps this is just fake news or propaganda, time may tell.

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

I noticed that as well.

originally posted by: seattlerat
I didn't say it was cut down I said it was "toppled".

Read your source broheem, they said it was 'chopped down'.

Yeah... calling BS on this... that tree looks like it was rotting and fell over... anything to make TRUMP look worse... 🤨

a reply to: seattlerat

What do you think should happen to persons illegally destroying trees in a national park?

They go to jail if convicted. It's a federal felony.

But it looks to me like they weren't chopped down. Pushed over, maybe...or fell over due to old age or some other factor. Hard to tell from two pictures...

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus
a reply to: seattlerat


If that was chopped down where are the woodchips around the trunk? The other photo in your link clearly shows another tree that split much further up the trunk and appears to be due to natural causes.

ETA: This whole story sounds really suspicious. You need to cut a single tree down to go off-roading? Why not go around. Sounds like some hysterics are being hysterical over a fallen tree that totally appears to have fallen on it's own.


ETA 2: And this does answer the age old question, if a Joshua Tree falls in the woods does it cause Trump Derangement Syndrome. The answer: Yes.

My thoughts as well. It would take nothing to simply drive around a Joshua tree with an off road vehicle in this area, and secondly, the fallen trees are no more passable than when they were standing. It's not as if they were toppled, then MOVED out of the way to "gain access" as they claim. This doesn't pass the sniff test at all.


Now could vandals have toppled (they weren't cut) the trees to be jackasses? Certainly, but the whole "to gain access" is malarky propaganda.

a reply to: seattlerat


The only Hatchet Job here...is the one from HuffPo!

originally posted by: SwissMarked
Yeah... calling BS on this... that tree looks like it was rotting and fell over... anything to make “Orange Man Bad” look worse... 🤨

So some Trump hater took a picture of a single tree that fell all by itself just to make the President look worse than he is? I don't think he needs any help to look bad if you have the right shade of glasses on. The park has now been closed, do you think they would close it just to make Trump look bad, too? Again, this may be BS, but what if it isn't? You don't think people will take advantage of a situation especially when they know there is nobody around to do anything about it? There is more to the story than just a single tree.

As far as the lack of wood-chips and the wording used in the first source article, the way I read it the tree in the image is being referred to as having been toppled or knocked over. The use of the term, "cut down", seems to be referring to other trees not in the image. I admit, this is probably poor writing or editing in the article, but I think that we are just mincing words. I wish there was more information, I'm just passing on what I was able to glean from the two articles.

I will concur that it is possible that the tree fell on it's own, but with the reports of illegal camping, vehicles in restricted areas, cut locks, and other damage, it seems more likely to me that this is part of the surge in vandalism that has ALLEGEDLY been taking place during the shutdown.

originally posted by: seattlerat

originally posted by: SwissMarked
Yeah... calling BS on this... that tree looks like it was rotting and fell over... anything to make “Orange Man Bad” look worse... 🤨

So some Trump hater took a picture of a single tree that fell all by itself just to make the President look worse than he is?

I don't think he needs any help to look bad if you have the right shade of glasses on.

THERE it is.

If you've just wanted to write about how much you hate the 'Bad Orange Man'...why hide behind a dubious article from a completely bias source?

Go have yourself a nice little 'RANT' in the proper forum.

originally posted by: seattlerat

originally posted by: SwissMarked
Yeah... calling BS on this... that tree looks like it was rotting and fell over... anything to make “Orange Man Bad” look worse... 🤨

So some Trump hater took a picture of a single tree that fell all by itself just to make the President look worse than he is? I don't think he needs any help to look bad if you have the right shade of glasses on. The park has now been closed, do you think they would close it just to make Trump look bad, too? Again, this may be BS, but what if it isn't? You don't think people will take advantage of a situation especially when they know there is nobody around to do anything about it? There is more to the story than just a single tree.

Explain how those trees being in their current form "improved" the access to the area. They clearly weren't driven over and now block a bigger area than a standing tree. This story is propaganda.

originally posted by: IAMTAT

originally posted by: SwissMarked
Yeah... calling BS on this... that tree looks like it was rotting and fell over... anything to make “Orange Man Bad” look worse... 🤨

So some Trump hater took a picture of a single tree that fell all by itself just to make the President look worse than he is?

I don't think he needs any help to look bad if you have the right shade of glasses on.
THERE it is.

If you've just wanted to write about how much you hate the 'Bad Orange Man'...why hide behind a dubious article from a completely bias source?

Go have yourself a nice little 'RANT' in the proper forum.

I wasn't thinking about Politics OR Trump when I posted this, I avoid those topics whenever possible. What I meant by that comment is that some people will see what they want to see, it had nothing to do with my personal views/like/dislike of anyone. I was thinking about the loss of a tree.

Maybe it was an illegal immigrant who chopped down the tree?

a reply to: Halfswede

Did you even look at the two articles? There is more to the story than a single felled tree. There are illegal campsites, broken locks, cut chains, and other vandalism. Why is it so difficult to believe that it is possible that the tree was intentionally knocked down?

originally posted by: seattlerat

originally posted by: SwissMarked
Yeah... calling BS on this... that tree looks like it was rotting and fell over... anything to make “Orange Man Bad” look worse... 🤨

You don't think people will take advantage of a situation especially when they know there is nobody around to do anything about it? There is more to the story than just a single tree.

It's the first thing that came to mind when I heard about the park rangers being sent home... It'll just be a matter of time before people go in there and start ripping the parks apart with their dirt bikes & 4x4's and illegally harvesting firewood, or whatever.

It's just human nature... No respect.

a reply to: SwissMarked
looks like there is a large clump of orange hair next to the tree-finally evidence against orange man!
I don't understand why some people act like pigs if they are not policed every minute. Part of the enjoyment of camping in such areas is the lack of enforcement having hands off rangers. Always a good feeling leaving the area untouched and trash free.

a reply to: seattlerat


Point of procedure:
You've just attributed your own words to me in your edit.
Mods (and I) will object.

I'm not upset or offended....BUT...
Editing can be tricky sometimes...especially when the site is acting a lil funky.

It's not really a tree, but a species of Yucca.
The trunk is not constructed like a regular tree.

Maybe you could describe the trunk as a pithy pineapple structure.
it's not gonna look like a a felled oak tree.

These "trees" provide benefits to the local wildlife, and are already being threatened by changes in climate.


Let me make this understandable for some of you:
In the case if these "trees", they were also creating a WALL, to prevent dangerous damage to the locals.
Since it has been breached, there could be increased crossings into previously protected areas. Damaging the livelyhood of the residents. Birds, insects, tortoises, bats, etc..
Right? That's what a wall is supposed to do isn't it?

If this was done by humans, there should be a hefty fine! See, they are criminals for damaging and crossing this wall.

The desert is fragile. damage takes years, decades or longer to repair.