California Development to Spare 13K-Year-Old Oak

One of the world's oldest trees just got a wider personal bubble in suburban Southern California. After years of fights over a massive development in Jurupa Valley, city officials, conservationists, and developer Richland Communities have agreed to expand protections around a gnarled Palmer's oak believed to be roughly 13,000 years old and sacred to the Gabrieleño Band of Mission Indians' Kizh Nation. The compromise calls for 54 acres of open space around the ancient plant—considered among the world's oldest living organisms—and pushes the nearest edge of the planned Rio Vista project from 450 feet to 1,000 feet away, per SFGate.

Rio Vista, a 918-acre development to include 1,700 homes, a business park, school, and parks, has been a lightning rod in the Inland Empire, where rapid growth is colliding with environmental and cultural concerns. The Center for Biological Diversity and other groups had sued, initially seeking a 100-acre preserve, citing concerns about how water usage and digging might disturb the ancient tree with deep, widespread roots. In addition to the 54 acres now conserved, environmental groups and Native American tribes have the opportunity to purchase another 54 acres, reports LAist. This would "entirely protect the immediate watershed around the oak," says Aaron Echols of the California Native Plant Society. An earlier deal will see the transfer of 500 acres in the area to the Kizh Nation.