Climate RefuTREES
Scott Johnson | December 2018
Long before the white man conquered and colonized the American West, the native residents of the area, particularly the Mojave Desert, included native species such as the Joshua Tree (Yucca brevifolia), the Desert Woodrat (Neotoma lepida), and the Yucca Moth (Tegeticula yuccasella), as well as many indigenous peoples such as the Serrano, the Cahuilla, the Mojave, and the Chemehuevi. Beautiful and majestic, standing as crowning jewels of the Mojave Desert, the Joshua Tree not only provides a habitat for fellow desert species but supports indigenous cultures by bearing fruit and other resources. Indigenous peoples sustainably harvest Joshua Tree materials to trade with other nations to create thriving communities.
Slow-growing and long-lived, the Joshua Tree is a staple of the American West, providing a beacon of prosperity and freedom as well as biodiverse hubs for many wildlife species. Visible across the arid and scenic Mojave Desert, the Joshua Tree displays unconventional branching patterns often seen as grotesque, where trees remain short and stubby. Just like a young child making fervent attempts by any means possible to reach the candy jar on the top shelf of the kitchen to obtain the sweet reward, the Joshua Tree is determined to reach higher toward the sky to obtain the unending sunlight as a sweet reward, and we thought children were the only relentless sweet seekers! Although appearing juvenile in nature, the Joshua Tree also displays a sage and wisdom, where trees live for hundreds of years growing at a slow but steady pace, like the tree is patient and cooperative to sustain its growth.
Bearing majestic blooms and hidden gems of small spongy-fruit, the Joshua Tree is a biodiversity hub for many forms of life. This hub functions as a commercial hub, where relationships between forms of life provide the fuel for communities to thrive regardless of circumstances or environment. Just as residents of a local town rely on local farmers to provide produce/goods, the farmers rely on local residents to purchase these goods in order to turn a profit to continue farming. The Joshua Tree is the farmer, depending on the Desert Woodrat and the Yucca Moth to eat the seeds and pollinate their flowers. In situations where one is present, and the other is not, both suffer; therefore, the species rely on their counterparts’ presence to thrive. We can learn much from this relationship, in particular relating to the Yucca Moth.
The Joshua Tree is a unique species with an unconventional strategy for survival. Although most trees provide an incentive of sweet sugary nectar and excess pollen for species to munch on, the Joshua Tree provides no sweet nectar and little pollen in its blooms and instead depends on species such as the Yucca Moth to pollinate the trees’ blooms. However, this is not a one-sided relationship; In return, the Joshua Tree provides a very suitable habitat for the reproduction of the Yucca Moth, where female moths inject their eggs into the developing blooms, and then deploys her tentacles to obtain the pollen morsels and pollinate the flower for both the survival of her eggs and the tree. After a female’s pollination feast, and the trees hard labor, the Joshua Tree yields small spongy fruit for yucca caterpillars to feast upon ensuring their growth, fueling this thriving mutual relationship. As a result, the yucca caterpillars transform into beautiful moths taking off into the desert with magnificent white wings spreading the seed through their digestive cycles. This relationship provides a mutual deal or exchange between Joshua Tree and the Yucca Moth, just like the farmer and the customer, where both are necessary for a thriving and sustainable community.
However, this relationship is in danger. Rising temperatures and declining annual rainfall all across the American West, especially in the Mojave Desert, threaten the existence and reproduction of the Joshua Tree. Rising temperatures as a result of dramatically increasing greenhouse gas emissions are shortening the colder season of the Mojave Desert, as well as weakening the resiliency of the Joshua Tree to deal with increased high and decreased low-temperature fluxes. Nevertheless, Joshua Trees continue to trust in the Yucca Moth to pollinate their flowers and spread their seed; however, the Yucca Moth also is threatened because, without the existence of Joshua Trees, moths cannot reproduce and sustain their population. Furthermore, Joshua Trees are not good travelers, and cannot migrate toward a more favorable and necessary climate very easily. Instead, the Joshua Tree relies on the deal and friendship of the Yucca Moth to help continue this exchange, because one without the other weakens this mutual relationship. Will Joshua Trees and Yucca Moths be able to adapt fast enough to keep up with climate change and do so at a parallel pace? If not, then as temperatures rise, this mutual relationship will erode. It looks increasingly that Joshua Trees will become refuTREES, a tree without a hospitable homeland and unable to escape without the assistance of the Yucca Moth to pollinate the flowers and spread the seed through its reproduction.
Just as local residents rely on local farmers to provide fresh produce, relying on the customers to purchase these goods, one without the other suffers. Customers, naturally, cannot survive without nourishment from the farmers produce and goods, creating a shared concern. Consequently, if this mutual relationship is eroded, both farmers and customers must adapt, leaving both vulnerable to unpredictable threats and circumstances. This relationship between farmer and customer is the Joshua Tree story, it is my story. As a student at Appalachian State University, I regularly attend the Famers Market near campus on Saturday mornings, where local farmers of Watauga and Avery Counties to provide fresh produce as well as goods including handmade organic candles, local honey, as well as handmade apparel to stay warm throughout the cold winter. Without the presence of the farmers to sell their goods, my survival becomes threatened, motivating me to either seek out other sources of goods or see if I can help repair the mutual relationship. Likewise, without the regular turnout of customers, the survival of farmers becomes threatened, motivating them to seek out better places to sell their produce. The fabric of our human society relies on mutual relationships and exchange, from the production and purchase of goods to trading resources to exchanging technological information, as well as paying taxes. However, the real innovators of this mutual exchange was nature, including the Joshua Tree and the Yucca Moth’s mutual relationship. What does it mean for our society to draw inspiration and knowledge from nature, who created and taught us these relationships, to then erode these relationships through anthropogenic Climate Change and Biodiversity Loss?
We can learn much from the Joshua Tree-Yucca Moth story, as it is commonplace even in our modern society. I worry about the loss of knowledge, respect, and understanding of the role our environment plays in the sustainability of our planet, where humans are under the impression that nature is disposable and not critical to the survival of human society. By further extension, the planet, and humans are in a mutual relationship or a deal where humans are taking advantage of the farmers for their own customer gain, weakening the overall relationship. Relationships are key to a thriving society, regardless if it is an economic exchange or survival for mutual species. One without the other, becomes a refugee. I am therefore calling for us to possess species humility, where we as global stewards and species of our planet must understand and respect the other roles of species to continue our global mutual relationships of all kinds. After all, if we as humans don’t listen to the Joshua-Tree story, and the farmer and customer story, humans overall mutual relationship with our planet becomes threatened by the mass destruction of Anthropogenic Climate Change.
Scott Johnson | December 2018
Long before the white man conquered and colonized the American West, the native residents of the area, particularly the Mojave Desert, included native species such as the Joshua Tree (Yucca brevifolia), the Desert Woodrat (Neotoma lepida), and the Yucca Moth (Tegeticula yuccasella), as well as many indigenous peoples such as the Serrano, the Cahuilla, the Mojave, and the Chemehuevi. Beautiful and majestic, standing as crowning jewels of the Mojave Desert, the Joshua Tree not only provides a habitat for fellow desert species but supports indigenous cultures by bearing fruit and other resources. Indigenous peoples sustainably harvest Joshua Tree materials to trade with other nations to create thriving communities.
Slow-growing and long-lived, the Joshua Tree is a staple of the American West, providing a beacon of prosperity and freedom as well as biodiverse hubs for many wildlife species. Visible across the arid and scenic Mojave Desert, the Joshua Tree displays unconventional branching patterns often seen as grotesque, where trees remain short and stubby. Just like a young child making fervent attempts by any means possible to reach the candy jar on the top shelf of the kitchen to obtain the sweet reward, the Joshua Tree is determined to reach higher toward the sky to obtain the unending sunlight as a sweet reward, and we thought children were the only relentless sweet seekers! Although appearing juvenile in nature, the Joshua Tree also displays a sage and wisdom, where trees live for hundreds of years growing at a slow but steady pace, like the tree is patient and cooperative to sustain its growth.
Bearing majestic blooms and hidden gems of small spongy-fruit, the Joshua Tree is a biodiversity hub for many forms of life. This hub functions as a commercial hub, where relationships between forms of life provide the fuel for communities to thrive regardless of circumstances or environment. Just as residents of a local town rely on local farmers to provide produce/goods, the farmers rely on local residents to purchase these goods in order to turn a profit to continue farming. The Joshua Tree is the farmer, depending on the Desert Woodrat and the Yucca Moth to eat the seeds and pollinate their flowers. In situations where one is present, and the other is not, both suffer; therefore, the species rely on their counterparts’ presence to thrive. We can learn much from this relationship, in particular relating to the Yucca Moth.
The Joshua Tree is a unique species with an unconventional strategy for survival. Although most trees provide an incentive of sweet sugary nectar and excess pollen for species to munch on, the Joshua Tree provides no sweet nectar and little pollen in its blooms and instead depends on species such as the Yucca Moth to pollinate the trees’ blooms. However, this is not a one-sided relationship; In return, the Joshua Tree provides a very suitable habitat for the reproduction of the Yucca Moth, where female moths inject their eggs into the developing blooms, and then deploys her tentacles to obtain the pollen morsels and pollinate the flower for both the survival of her eggs and the tree. After a female’s pollination feast, and the trees hard labor, the Joshua Tree yields small spongy fruit for yucca caterpillars to feast upon ensuring their growth, fueling this thriving mutual relationship. As a result, the yucca caterpillars transform into beautiful moths taking off into the desert with magnificent white wings spreading the seed through their digestive cycles. This relationship provides a mutual deal or exchange between Joshua Tree and the Yucca Moth, just like the farmer and the customer, where both are necessary for a thriving and sustainable community.
However, this relationship is in danger. Rising temperatures and declining annual rainfall all across the American West, especially in the Mojave Desert, threaten the existence and reproduction of the Joshua Tree. Rising temperatures as a result of dramatically increasing greenhouse gas emissions are shortening the colder season of the Mojave Desert, as well as weakening the resiliency of the Joshua Tree to deal with increased high and decreased low-temperature fluxes. Nevertheless, Joshua Trees continue to trust in the Yucca Moth to pollinate their flowers and spread their seed; however, the Yucca Moth also is threatened because, without the existence of Joshua Trees, moths cannot reproduce and sustain their population. Furthermore, Joshua Trees are not good travelers, and cannot migrate toward a more favorable and necessary climate very easily. Instead, the Joshua Tree relies on the deal and friendship of the Yucca Moth to help continue this exchange, because one without the other weakens this mutual relationship. Will Joshua Trees and Yucca Moths be able to adapt fast enough to keep up with climate change and do so at a parallel pace? If not, then as temperatures rise, this mutual relationship will erode. It looks increasingly that Joshua Trees will become refuTREES, a tree without a hospitable homeland and unable to escape without the assistance of the Yucca Moth to pollinate the flowers and spread the seed through its reproduction.
Just as local residents rely on local farmers to provide fresh produce, relying on the customers to purchase these goods, one without the other suffers. Customers, naturally, cannot survive without nourishment from the farmers produce and goods, creating a shared concern. Consequently, if this mutual relationship is eroded, both farmers and customers must adapt, leaving both vulnerable to unpredictable threats and circumstances. This relationship between farmer and customer is the Joshua Tree story, it is my story. As a student at Appalachian State University, I regularly attend the Famers Market near campus on Saturday mornings, where local farmers of Watauga and Avery Counties to provide fresh produce as well as goods including handmade organic candles, local honey, as well as handmade apparel to stay warm throughout the cold winter. Without the presence of the farmers to sell their goods, my survival becomes threatened, motivating me to either seek out other sources of goods or see if I can help repair the mutual relationship. Likewise, without the regular turnout of customers, the survival of farmers becomes threatened, motivating them to seek out better places to sell their produce. The fabric of our human society relies on mutual relationships and exchange, from the production and purchase of goods to trading resources to exchanging technological information, as well as paying taxes. However, the real innovators of this mutual exchange was nature, including the Joshua Tree and the Yucca Moth’s mutual relationship. What does it mean for our society to draw inspiration and knowledge from nature, who created and taught us these relationships, to then erode these relationships through anthropogenic Climate Change and Biodiversity Loss?
We can learn much from the Joshua Tree-Yucca Moth story, as it is commonplace even in our modern society. I worry about the loss of knowledge, respect, and understanding of the role our environment plays in the sustainability of our planet, where humans are under the impression that nature is disposable and not critical to the survival of human society. By further extension, the planet, and humans are in a mutual relationship or a deal where humans are taking advantage of the farmers for their own customer gain, weakening the overall relationship. Relationships are key to a thriving society, regardless if it is an economic exchange or survival for mutual species. One without the other, becomes a refugee. I am therefore calling for us to possess species humility, where we as global stewards and species of our planet must understand and respect the other roles of species to continue our global mutual relationships of all kinds. After all, if we as humans don’t listen to the Joshua-Tree story, and the farmer and customer story, humans overall mutual relationship with our planet becomes threatened by the mass destruction of Anthropogenic Climate Change.