Western Joshua trees are protected as candidates for California’s threatened species list and by a special conservation law.

Environmentalists say this is needed because the iconic succulents are losing habitat to climate change and development.

But some locals say the rules have delayed infrastructure housing and projects and made it difficult for homeowners to maintain their properties.

Imagine this: After years of toiling in the Southern California rat race, you buy a parcel of land in the high desert. It is here, on a sunny lot thick with Joshua trees, that you plan to build your retirement home.

But before you can get a shovel into the ground, everything changes. Joshua trees become candidates for the state’s threatened and endangered species list and are then protected by an unpr

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