Joshua Tree - May 2003 / IMG_5828 Patrick and Lucy

Queen Valley at sunset.

Many of the joshua trees had lost big chunks of bark and were looking decidedly poorly.

Initially, the park services  thought this was from vandalism, or some such, but they
gradually realised it was the ground squirrels, starved of any moisture from the drought,
were chewing the bark off to get at the cambium layer underneath. Joshua Tree normally
enjoys about 5-6" of rain a year (I believe), but had only had 0.25" in the last year or so.

Because of their hands off approach, Park Services aren't doing anything about this.
Over hundreds of thousands of years, droughts have come and gone and
this is part of the natural cycle.