Desert Forest: Life with Joshua Trees focuses on the plight of the Joshua tree and its Mojave Desert habitat, threatened by climate change, development, wind and solar energy industries, and wildfires.

In the book, you'll find a collection of essays and imagery that illuminates deep entangled relationships with the Joshua tree. Leading scientists, artists, indigenous culture bearers, historians, conservationists, policy makers, and creative writers, share their multidisciplinary research to spotlight the Joshua tree in response to the growing threat of climate change and the explosion of development across Mojave Desert lands. Following the trails of beneficial plant kinships as well as the damage done by ongoing extractions, they share desert cosmologies through this unique icon—all while bringing us closer to the being that is Joshua tree. 

This book is for everyone concerned about the unfolding impacts of human actions in the natural world and how we can find better ways of living together through acts of care and repair.

Edited by Sant Khalsa and Juniper Harrower

Sant Khalsa is an artist and activist whose artworks are widely exhibited, published, and collected by museums including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Center for Creative Photography in Tucson. She is a Professor of Art, Emerita at California State University, San Bernardino and lives in Joshua Tree.

Dr. Juniper Harrower specializes in multispecies entanglements under climate change, working at the intersection of ecology and art practice. Her artwork is exhibited internationally, and she publishes across disciplines. She directed the UCSC Art+Science Initiative, taught art at UC Berkeley, and is an Assistant Professor of Studio Art at Reed College.