As we continue to emerge from what has been a challenging year, this month’s media contest theme, “Regrowth,” seems particularly appropriate. And our submissions capture a hopefulness and rejuvenation that is most welcome. Included in these is our winning contribution, above, courtesy of Research Associate, Nic Anderson. As Nic describes, this perfectly captures the theme: “This was one of my favorite moments from April since I have been working on the Dome Fire restoration project with NPS at the Mojave National Preserve. The photo signifies hope and rebirth of a severely burned Joshua Tree (Yucca brevifolia var. jaegariana) woodland. After having searched for survivors, locating planting sites, and setting up long term monitoring plots we were mostly down in heart to find little survivorship. And alas! We found sparse asexual budding from the base of smaller burned Joshua Trees. This offers us hope to see that all is not lost in this once dense refugia locations of the constricting range of the eastern Joshua trees.”
Congratulations to Nic, and thanks to all who submitted the wodnerful photos below.
