Astroturf Wars

But it was Wheeler, a Joshua Tree resident since 1997 and a “transient climber” in the area for 10 years before that, who mounted the best defense for Shavers Valley. He has hiked every known route in the park — he can detail routes through the mountains from hundreds of feet away — and studied its flora down to the tiniest detail. The Palo Verde tree, he explained, has evolved to perform photosynthesis with its bark so as not to waste precious surface area — and water — on leaves. “When you look at this place and the impact [the development] is going to create, you have to ask yourself why. Why would they put it here?”

Niskala would answer that with one word: demand. (Selzer just says, “We own it.”)

“But there’s a demand for crack cocaine,” said Wheeler. “That doesn’t make it right. If you want to live in a place like this, and there’s no place for you, get on the waiting list.”

If there were a waiting list, it would be a long one: In the past year, home prices in the Coachella Valley have jumped by 30 percent, in the city of Joshua Tree by 22 percent. Near the Twentynine Palms Marine base, they nearly doubled. Last week, the Kaiser/Mine Reclamation Corp. and the Bureau of Land Management declared that they will appeal the ruling against the Eagle Mountain landfill. “Eighteen years have gone by, and now we’re facing another decade and $150,000,” said Charpied. “When are these guys going to go away?”

By “these guys,” she means not only Kaiser but developers like GLC. And the answer is, clearly, not soon. GLC has already discussed its plans with California Fish and Game and U.S. Fish and Wildlife; when its first environmental study comes out this summer, its plans go to Riverside County’s unpredictable Board of Supervisors (desert district Supervisor Roy Wilson opposed the Joshua Hills development but supported the Eagle Mountain landfill).

“We have a lot of people excited about our vision for this land,” says Niskala. “And we’re very patient.”