Wildfires Were Rare In The Mojave Desert. A Record-Breaking Fire Shows Why That's Changing

More than 77,000 acres of desert landscape have burned over the past few days in the York Fire, the largest on record for the Mojave National Preserve, as high temperatures and strong winds drove flames across the border into Nevada on Sunday.

What's going on and why it's a game changer

Crane Valley Hotshots set a back fire as the York fire burns in the Mojave National Preserve on July 30, 2023.

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David Swanson

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AFP via Getty Images

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Flames up to 20 feet tall have been spotted as the fire has torn through mixed desert scrub, yucca, pinyon juniper, and invasive plants like red brome, all of which saw a lot of growth during the recent wet winter.

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“I was just driving through that area a week or two before the York Fire and thought 'This place is going to burn.' There’s just fuel everywhere,” said Debra Hughson, deputy superintendent of the preserve.

Fires like this have long been rare in Mojave desert ecosystems, with some estimates putting the fire return interval at every couple hundred years. Now, they’re becoming a feature of the landscape, increasing in frequency and jeopardizing the recovery of native species, including Joshua trees. Just a few years ago, the nearby Dome Fire burned more than 40,000 acres and destroyed more than 1 million of the famous trees.

“Fires this big are really a game changer in the desert,” said Todd Esque, research ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey.

A Joshua Tree is seen as the York fire burns in the distance in the Mojave National Preserve on July 30, 2023.

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David Swanson

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AFP via Getty Images

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The role invasive species are playing

Invasive species including red brome, cheatgrass and Sahara mustard are helping drive the new fire regime. The weeds thrive in the desert environment, filling in the space between Joshua trees, carrying the fire from one tree to the next. And after fire clears things out, the invasive species quickly move back in.

“They burn every 10 years, which happens in some places where there’s Joshua trees now, because of weeds…now it’s just a straw-colored two dimensional landscape of rolling hills,” Esque said.

A pullback on grazing in this area of the Mojave has led to an increase in the growth of native vegetation as well, with grasses like big galleta also carrying fire.

Joshua trees aren’t really all that adapted to withstand fire. They can re-sprout from their roots after burning, but that’s not always the case if the fire’s too intense.

Even if they do pop back up, their growth rate of roughly three centimeters per year is quite slow, meaning the landscapes we’ve long grown fond of are likely not coming back, at least in our lifetimes. They could take more than a century to repopulate — assuming they do at all. That's because hotter temperatures and longer droughts, punctuated by frequent fires in the era of climate change, make regrowth more difficult.

The fire is also burning through critical habitat for the desert tortoise, which is listed as a threatened species.

Where things stand

The boundaries of the York Fire as Sunday.

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Courtesy Mojave National Preserve

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A view of the fire on Saturday night.

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Courtesy Mojave National Preserve

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As of Monday, the York Fire hasn't prompted evacuation orders as it continues to burn in remote areas, fed by a lot of dry vegetation.

“There’s a plethora of very rare and sensitive resources in Southern Nevada. Wilderness areas, areas of critical environmental concern. There’s a lot of fuel there, as the lingo goes,” Hughson said. “It’s kind of a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation now. You can either bulldoze your vegetation to build a fire break, or watch it burn.”

Resources for understanding wildland fires