In August 2020, the Dome Fire consumed nearly 44,000 acres (70 square miles) in Mojave National Preserve and burned an estimated 1.3 million eastern Joshua trees (Yucca jaegeriana) in one of the largest and densest Joshua tree forests in the world. The fire was just one of the many record-breaking wildfires during the year that turned the skies blood red for much of the Western US. Scientists developed predictive models to forecast how the Joshua trees will respond and shift to changing climatic conditions. One such model predicts that Cima Dome, the location of the fire, could be a refugia for the species (Cole et al., 2011). The perimeter of the Dome Fire overlaps the modelled refugia almost entirely.
Source: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service
