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"Development of Joshua Hills would have seriously threatened the Coachella Valley Preserve," says The Nature Conservancy’s E.J. Remson. “Not only is the property crucial as a wildlife corridor, it also provides one-third of the sand necessary for maintaining the preserve’s dune system."
This summer, The Nature Conservancy brokered a landmark conservation deal that stopped plans to develop this wildlife corridor into another desert city, sparing the fragile ecosystem the burden of 7,000 new homes, three hotels, a university, shops and restaurants, two country clubs, and 12 golf courses. These golf courses would have tapped groundwater seeping up from the San Andreas Fault, depriving verdant palm oases their life source.
Recurring Encroachment
Bill Havert, executive director of the state agency Coachella Valley Mountains Conservancy (CVMC), recalls, "We’d initiated talks with the developer who had optioned it, but we needed help. Our two-person agency makes grants to nonprofits to help buy and conserve land; we didn't have the flexibility to spearhead negotiations for Joshua Hills. That's when we called The Nature Conservancy."
The Conservancy has a long history of action in the Coachella Valley. Back in the early 1980s, the valley was confronted with $19 billion in development projects. In response, the Conservancy—along with business and community representatives—developed the country’s first Habitat Conservation Plan, a cooperative land management agreement that established the Coachella Valley Preserve. The 17,000-acre deal was big enough to safeguard the fringe-toed lizard and other species found nowhere else in the world, while allowing well-planned development elsewhere in the valley.
By 1997, a collective of agencies successfully managed Coachella Valley Preserve, allowing the Conservancy to focus its resources on protecting other sensitive habitat in the state, including nearby Joshua Hills.
Keep the Sand Blowing
For two years The Nature Conservancy worked with CVMC to acquire Joshua Hills from property owner Cathton Holdings Inc. “I think Cathton Holdings had doubts that we could put the money together,” Havert says.
In the end, six organizations contributed to funding the $26 million deal. “We're fortunate to have so many good partners committed to preserving the Joshua Hills property,” Remson says. “It's a beautiful area, and we know it will be managed well.”
The Coachella Valley once contained nearly 100 square miles of wind-blown sand dunes. Today, less than five percent of that historic distribution remains. The dune system relies on wind and rain to carry sand particles off the Joshua Hills property onto the preserve. Development would have locked the sand in place, threatening habitat for unique species such as the fringe-toed lizard, and the Palm Springs pocket mouse.
“From nearly sea level to over 5,000 feet in elevation, there is now an unbroken corridor for badgers, kit foxes, bobcats and even the occasional desert bighorn sheep,” says Cameron Barrows, director of the Coachella Valley Preserve. “In the face of a changing climate and increasing fragmentation from urbanization, this connection provides security for the long-term protection of these habitats and species."
Upon acquiring Joshua Hills, the Conservancy transferred ownership and short-term management of the property to the California Department of Fish and Game, Coachella Valley Association of Governments and Friends of the Desert and Mountains. Long-term management will be regulated by the area's new Multi-Species Habitat Conservation Plan.
A Legacy Sustained
"We acquired a linchpin property that connects two valuable conservation areas, which now cover more than 829,000 acres of natural desert from Interstate 10 to Joshua Tree National Park,” says Remson. “We’ve increased the size of the Coachella Valley Preserve to 29,000 acres and have the satisfaction of enhancing the long-term conservation of one of our legacy projects."
That legacy, passed down by the Conservancy and its partners, is held in the blown-sand fields, palm woodlands and alluvial fans; it grows in the spectacular desert views of snow-capped San Jacinto mountain peaks; it walks with the desert tortoise and fringe-toed lizard among desert lavender, mesquite and smoke trees. It lives as the natural heritage of all future Californians.
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