A federal judge ordered the Fish and Wildlife Service on Monday to consider Endangered Species Act protections for Joshua trees, ruling in favor of environmental advocates who challenged a Biden-era rejection of the listing proposal.
U.S. District Judge Wesley Hsu of the Central District of California sided with WildEarth Guardians, which filed a lawsuit in 2024 after FWS decided against protections for two Joshua tree species.
Hsu, a Biden appointee, found FWS failed to properly consider climate change and other threats in its 2023 determination.
“Although the Court does not expect the Service to predict the future with absolute certainty, the Service provides no explanation as to why it did not use current trends and standards regarding greenhouse gas emissions as a basis for its decision, when this data currently is available and the Service states in its [species status assessment] the regulations are unlikely to alter the trajectory of climate change impacts,” Hsu wrote in his decision.
