And on a warm early morning summer day, Patrick Emblidge and Clay Noss with the Mojave Desert Land Trust, are hopeful they can catch a glimpse of a desert tortoise. To do that, they're searching for holes that tortoises make, often called burrows, in a canyon near Joshua Tree, where the town's namesake tree flourishes near desert flora and grasses.

Researchers are working to save a tortoise that has been in the American Southwest for millions of years - the Mojave Desert tortoise, to be specific. It's considered a threatened species, but in California, there are now extra protections in place, as Nate Perez from NPR's Climate Desk reports.