National Parks as Conservation Entities – Joshua Tree NP

Visiting a national park is such a wonderful learning activity and a chance to learn about species/habitat refugia. Recently I had the chance to travel to Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California. Not only did I see some amazing habitat and plant adaptations to the arid environment, I also got to see the confluence of two deserts each with it set of species come together along an abrupt altitude gradient, with the Mojave Desert with its Joshua trees at the a high elevation and the Colorado Desert with its ocotillo plants and the lower elevation. The park is home many birds and to 12% of the plants of California and that’s quite something for a state of its size.
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