Don’t mess with Joshua trees.
Two landowners that dug up dozens of Joshua trees to lay ground for new housing have been fined $18,000, according to reporting by the Hi-Desert Star, out of San Bernardino County.
Joshua trees are a threatened species and it is illegal to remove, disturb or kill them.
In February, a resident in a housing development in Morongo Basin became upset when they spotted two people uprooting Joshua trees. They were pulling the trees from the ground and burying them in a hole on the property, according to the prosecutor.
The resident called the Fish & Wildlife Department and reported the crime. A wildlife officer was sent to the scene.
"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," said Patrick Foy, a captain with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. "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 Foy, landowners Jeffrey Walter and Jonetta Nordberg-Walter had uprooted 36 trees. Prosecutors said the couple are building a home on the land and wanted to clear space in the area.
This week, Walter and Nordberg-Walter appeared in court on 36 misdemeanor charges, one for each tree uprooted. They agreed to pay a $9,000 fine each and swore they would not violate any law for 24 months.
"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," said Douglas Poston, the supervising deputy district attorney for the Morongo Basin in a press release.
The money will go towards the Western Joshua Tree Mitigation Fund, which pays for land where western Joshua trees will be permanently protected.
If the fines are paid and rules followed, the couple will have the case dropped.
If not, the criminal prosecution will proceed.
Related
