NPS's I&M division on the DOGE chopping block

The National Park Service's (NPS) Inventory and Monitoring Division (I&M) is headed for a DOGE reduction or elimination in its entirety.

The I&M division provides scientific data that is critical for park management.  It helps to ensure that the parks remain healthy and are meeting their conservation objectives.

This May 2025 article concerning the federally listed Navajo Sedge (Carex specuicola):

https://www.nps.gov/articles/protecting-navajo-sedge-in-natural-bridges.htm

was authored by an I&M research scientist and the related work was done by experienced I&M staffers along with Natural Bridges National Monument staff.

More about the I&M division:

https://www.nps.gov/im/index.htm

DOGE has been illegally in control of the NPS since April of 2025.

Related articles:

Elon Musk's DOGE is now running America's national parks (April 21, 2025)

https://www.sfgate.com/national-parks/article/doge-running-national-parks-20287023.php

DOGE now in control of the National Park Service (April 23,2025):

https://www.travelpulse.com/news/impacting-travel/doge-now-in-control-of-the-national-park-service-what-we-know

DOGE Is Now in Charge of U.S. National Parks (April 24, 2025)

https://www.fodors.com/news/news/national-parks-will-now-be-run-by-elon-musks-doge

Navajo Sedge information

Utah Rare Plants website:

https://www.utahrareplants.org/pdf/Carex_specuicola.pdf

ECOS:

https://ecos.fws.gov/ecp/species/8579

Provo recognizes the critical importance of native pollinators

Provo is the first city in Utah to join the Bee City USA initiative which focuses on native pollinator  education and conservation.

BYU student newspaper article:

https://universe.byu.edu/metro/provo-joins-bee-city-usa-as-first-in-utah-to-boost-pollinator-conservation

More information

Bee City USA (an initiative of the Xerces Society) website:

https://beecityusa.org/

Xerces website:

https://xerces.org/

Related:  

Project 1100 (based in Utah) website:

https://www.projectelevenhundred.org/

Note: Project 1100 is named in honor of the some 1100 species of native bees found so far in Utah.  While Utah is known as the "honeybee state" and has a state flag that utilizes a fanciful beehive graphic, honeybees are not native bees and hive placement (among other impacts) can have a seriously negative impact on our native bees. Utah's native flora (which includes some 3,000 vascular plant species alone) evolved alongside native bees (and other pollinators, but bees typically have been the most significant) and not honeybees.   And without plants, we would not exist.

ESA protection for two Joshua Tree species required to be reanalyzed

The US Fish and Wildlife Service has been ordered to reanalyze climate change threats to  the Western and Eastern Joshua Tree species.  Endangered Species Act (ESA) designations as threatened species was previously denied.

Related links:

https://www.desertsun.com/story/news/environment/2025/05/15/joshua-tree-protection-ruling/83658422007/

https://abcnews.go.com/US/federal-court-rules-attempt-withhold-endangered-species-act/story?id=121792589

https://wildearthguardians.org/press-releases/federal-court-sides-with-conservationists-joshua-tree-analysis-unlawfully-sidesteps-climate-science/

https://wildearthguardians.org/brave-new-wild/where-we-work/arizona/inside-the-courtroom-legal-fellow-casey-bage-wins-for-wildlife/

"The court emphasized the need for the FWS to adequately address the threats posed by climate change, including prolonged droughts, increasing fire, and habitat loss, to the Joshua tree."

There are two separate species involved.  The species that occurs in the southwestern corner of Utah is the Eastern Joshua Tree, Yucca jaegeriana, and not Yucca brevifolia (which does not actually occur in Utah as was historically thought).  In Utah Y. jaegeriana is considered to be criticially imperiled (S1) at the NatureServe state ranking level.   The two species may appear superficially to be similar in appearance but they have different growth habits, different leaf lengths, different pollinators, and different fruit and flower morphologies.  Y. jaegeriana is for example generally not as tall and is branched compared to the taller, unbranched Y. brevifolia.  

Y. jaegeriana in Utah solely occurs in Washington County extending to western Arizona and  then from southeastern to southwestern Nevada and then slipping just over the border into southeastern California.  Y. brevifolia also occurs in Nevada but farther to north in southwestern Nevada and then extending more into the interior of southeastern California.  While there is an area where they meet, they are mostly not sympatric.

Both species are highly threatened by climate change, wildfires, habitat loss and invasive species.

Some journal references and related links:

Recognition of Y. jaegeriana as a species in 2007:

https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1050&context=aliso#:~:text=Yucca%20brevifolia%20s.s.%20is%20arborescent,5).

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/ecology-and-evolution/articles/10.3389/fevo.2023.1266892/full

In July of 2023 California passed the Western Joshua Tree Conservation Act to conserve western Joshua tree and its habitat 

https://wildlife.ca.gov/Conservation/Environmental-Review/WJT

Yucca jaegeriana in Mohave Co AZ 4/25/1986 (Tony Frates photo)