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Battle over California’s oldest plant sparks heated development debate

urlhttps3A2F2Fcalifornia times brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com2F4a2Fc52Fe32dae874b53ab22712a2f30b8722F1365421 me jurupa oak tree threatened by development 9 gmf

Growth battle facilities on California’s oldest plant

An aerial view of a sprawling, shrub-like plant that overlooks a valley covered with dirt paths.

JURUPA VALLEY, Calif. —

After a contentious five-hour public assembly, environmental advocates have persuaded Inland Empire officers to delay improvement of a challenge inside 400 toes of one of many oldest recognized vegetation within the state and the third-oldest on this planet.

“Tonight has been an actual studying course of,” Jurupa Valley Metropolis Planning Fee Chair Penny Newman mentioned on the Thursday assembly. “I feel all of us want time to course of the knowledge we’ve had right here tonight.”

The fee voted unanimously to desk the vote. Commissioners mentioned the builders should do extra research into the potential results on the plant, a Palmer oak, and additional discover protecting measures. Commissioners additionally requested extra particulars on a plan to switch possession of the tree and surrounding land to an area tribe, who would oversee its conservation.

“We now have found a treasure on the world stage right here in our humble metropolis,” lifelong Jurupa Valley resident Jennifer Iyer mentioned on the assembly. “In a metropolis recognized for its poisonous waste dump, the worst air high quality within the nation … let’s have a plan that protects and celebrates one thing distinctive that makes us proud.”

The roughly 370-acre improvement would come with residential housing, an elementary faculty, a enterprise park, and industrial buildings. It might go away the tree on a 27-acre rocky outcrop, however it will come inside 400 toes of the plant. Scientists and tribal members say the oak has been round for no less than 13,000 years — surviving the final ice age and, extra not too long ago, the founding of the US.

Members of the Shiishongna Tongva Nation, the Corona Band Of Gabrieleño Indians, and the Kizh Nation, Gabrieleño Band Of Mission Indians have lived within the Santa Ana River Basin for millennia as effectively. Each teams regard the tree as sacred.

“We’ve recognized about this tree eternally,” mentioned Michael Negrete, chief and chairperson of the Shiishongna Tongva Nation. “It offers medication. It offers oxygen. It offers life to the animals.”

Firms have been attempting to develop the land for the reason that early Nineties, with Richland Communities presenting the present plan in 2019. After discussions with the Metropolis Planning Fee and the general public, it has changed potential warehouses with gentle industrial house and a enterprise park, elevated the quantity of open house, and dedicated to switch possession and conservation tasks of the land with the Palmer oak to a Native tribe or conservation group.

Richland Communities introduced on the assembly that it had reached an settlement in idea to switch the land to the Kizh Nation and supply them with a $250,000 preliminary endowment for conservation. Firm executives additionally proposed requiring the settlement to be finalized earlier than development begins on the commercial and enterprise sections, that are closest to the tree.

Commissioners need extra info on the plan’s particulars and the way conservation of the land can be legally enforced. Richland Communities didn’t reply to a request for remark.

In comparison with rugged California stay oaks, the Palmer oak seems extra like a shrub and is made up of particular person stems sprouting in a grove. It wasn’t till pretty not too long ago that researchers decided its spectacular age.

Mitchell Provance, a botanist and affiliate researcher at UC Riverside, first seen the oak greater than twenty years in the past and located it odd that it lived remoted from different members of its species in an space that was a lot decrease and warmer than the place the timber often develop. He started discussing the tree along with his colleagues. They hypothesized that it was the final holdout from a time when the area was cooler and wetter — a a lot friendlier surroundings for the oaks.

To see if this was the case, the researchers collected samples from a number of useless stems — and, positive sufficient, all of them had equivalent DNA. At any time when the tree was broken by a hearth, it will resprout from the bottom of its trunk. By utilizing tree rings to estimate how a lot the trunk can develop in a 12 months, the staff was in a position to calculate the tree’s age by measuring the grove’s diameter.

At the moment, the grove measures 80 toes extensive, which led researchers to estimate that the tree is between 13,000 and 18,000 years previous. It’s doable that the tree has been in a position to reproduce with itself, as an alternative of simply resprouting from the trunk to provide clones, however that is unlikely, consultants say.

Whereas the corporate has labored with the environmental advisor FirstCarbon Options to check the affect of development vibrations on the tree and establish potential water sources, it has not mapped the tree’s root system or confirmed its direct water supply — a course of that might contain chemical testing of water on the oak’s roots.

Some additionally fear the proposed improvement would expose the aged oak to the city warmth island impact — a phenomenon by which developed areas can run 1 to 7 levels larger than shaded, pure areas throughout the day.

Aaron Echols, the conservation chair of the Riverside/San Bernardino California Native Crops Society, mentioned it was the responsibility of conservation teams to level out potential results on the tree that haven’t but been studied. “The burden to mitigate impacts … that’s on the applicant and the advisor.”

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Body found inside a Goodwill donation bin in Pasadena

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A dead body was found Tuesday inside a Goodwill donation bin in Pasadena, according to authorities.

The Pasadena Police Department responded to a report of a body near 340 S. Fair Oaks Ave. around 11 a.m., according to KTLA. The body was found by employees wrapped in a tarp inside a donation bin.

Fox News reported that the body had no visible signs of injury.

Calls to the Pasadena Police Department were not immediately returned.

The person was identified as an adult man, but further details, including his name or circumstance of his death, weren’t released.

This is a developing story that will be updated as details are released.

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Trump Got the Green Light to Fire Federal Workers. Now, They Wait.

A court-ordered pause in Might lined almost two dozen federal companies at completely different phases of executing President Trump’s directive for mass layoffs. The Supreme Courtroom stated the administration might proceed.

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New Mexico flash flooding kills at least 3, prompts dozens of rescues, sweeps house away

Flash flooding from heavy rain Tuesday killed no less than three folks and prompted dozens of rescues within the Ruidoso space of southern New Mexico, officers mentioned — the identical space devastated by a lethal wildfire final summer season. A home was seen being carried downstream by the fast-moving water. There was no phrase on whether or not anybody was in it.

Late Tuesday evening, the village of Ruidoso confirmed {that a} four-year-old woman, seven-year-old boy and 40-to-50-year outdated man have been swept downstream and later discovered lifeless.

CBS Albuquerque, New Mexico affiliate KRQE-TV reported there have been dozens of swift water rescues. The Related Press cited Danielle Silva of the New Mexico Division of Homeland Safety and Emergency Administration as saying no less than 85 rescues have been carried out. Some folks trapped of their houses and automobiles have been amongst these dropped at security, she mentioned.

Kerry Gladden, a spokesperson for the village of Ruidoso, advised CBS Information some folks have been unaccounted for, however the quantity was unclear. KRQE put the quantity at three.

The Rio Ruidoso, a river in Lincoln County, rose about 19 toes in simply minutes, AP reported. Gladden mentioned the Hollywood gauge on the Rio Ruidoso hit a document stage in the course of the flash flood, 5 toes greater than the earlier mark, illustrating how briskly the flooding hit.

In response to real-time data from the U.S. Geological Survey, water ranges on the 30-mile-long river about 150 miles southeast of Albuquerque have been “extraordinarily above” its historic each day averages on Tuesday night.

The Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration mentioned in an announcement Tuesday that the Nationwide Climate Service issued a flood look ahead to the South Central Mountains, together with Ruidoso, at 2:46 a.m. MT. That warning was to be in impact from midday till 8 p.m. native time, NOAA mentioned. A flash flood warning was issued for the South Fork burn scar in Lincoln County, New Mexico, at 2:12 p.m., and included a “appreciable” flooding tag, which NOAA mentioned “routinely triggers a Wi-fi Emergency Alert to be issued for the warned space.”

NOAA mentioned the warning was upgraded to a flash flooding emergency about half-hour later.

A video posted on social media by Ruidoso resident Kaitlyn Carpenter exhibits fast-moving water sweeping a house down a river. Another video exhibits floodwaters carrying a myriad of particles down a river financial institution earlier than reaching a small bridge and inundating the roadway.

New Mexico Flooding — On this picture taken from video, a home is carried away by flash flooding behind a home in Ruidoso, N.M., Tuesday, July 8, 2025.

Kaitlyn Carpenter by way of AP

Carpenter, whose artwork studio was swept away throughout a flood final 12 months, advised The AP she was using her bike by way of city Tuesday afternoon when the storm began to choose up, and he or she sought shelter on the riverside Downshift Brewing Firm with dozens of different folks. She began to movie particles speeding down the Rio Ruidoso river when she noticed a home floating by with a well-recognized turquoise door. It belonged to the household of one among her finest associates.

Her pal’s household was not in the home and is protected, she mentioned.

“I have been in that home and have reminiscences in that home, so seeing it come down the river was simply fairly heartbreaking,” Carpenter advised AP. “I simply could not consider it.”

A couple of dozen roads have been closed due to particles, Gladden mentioned, and the cleanup is underway after water receded.

One other half-hour later and it is exhausting to inform the place the riverbed is. The river is now in main flood stage at over 15 toes. Keep away from the river! Search greater floor NOW! #nmwx pic.twitter.com/gd3ecndelG

— NWS Albuquerque (@NWSAlbuquerque) July 8, 2025

The world across the Rio Ruidoso and far of Lincoln County was scorched last year by wildfires, making the soil unstable on the floor and extra susceptible to flooding. Two folks died within the South Fork and Salt fires, and tons of of houses have been destroyed in June 2024.

Wildfires can considerably change the panorama, together with lowering vegetation — which decreases the variety of vegetation and roots to carry all of the soil in place. The burn scars improve flash flood dangers for no less than two years, in response to the federal Burned Area Emergency Response, which assessed the injury.

The Related Press,

Omar Villafranca and

Carter Evans

contributed to this report.