Park staff preserving a human-damaged Joshua tree
NPS / Emily Hassell
Joshua trees are fragile and can be easily damaged. The park prohibits climbing on, chopping, damaging, or harming Joshua trees. Otherwise healthy Joshua trees that touch the ground, like this one, can grow new roots in that area.
Here, a team of park staff are sealing a human-caused wound to a Joshua tree with bug-repelling sealant. They then place a cage around the area to prevent larger animals or weather from further damaging the tree.
Two women paint brown sealant onto a damaged section of a trunk of a Joshua tree. Original public domain image from Flickr