JURUPA VALLEY, Calif.— Conservation groups and Southern California developers reached an agreement today to create conservation areas and improve wildlife connectivity to help safeguard the world’s oldest known living oak — a plant that is at least 13,000 years old with cultural significance to local Tribes.

The agreement will permanently protect 54.7 acres of open space near an ancient Palmer’s oak in Jurupa Valley and expand the buffer around the oak from 450 to 1,000 feet, allowing the residential, industrial and commercial development to move forward while adding necessary protections for the ancient plant.

“I’m relieved that we can steer development away from an oak that’s so special it can’t be found anywhere else in the world,” said Aruna Prabhala, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Our goal was to minimize risk to the Jurupa Oak and this agreement does exactly that while also making it easier for hillside animals in the region to roam and thrive. This ancient oak is an example of the rich natural heritage protected by California’s environmental laws, and how those laws help us protect our natural heritage for future generations.”

“Preserving the unique Palmer’s oak and the hillside that has allowed it to survive all these millennia was our primary goal,” said Len Nunney of Friends of Riverside’s Hills. “And by adding additional conserved natural open space previously slated for development and a wildlife corridor linking the area to more than 350 additional acres of conserved land goes a long way to preserving habitat extensive enough to support a viable ecosystem.”

Today’s agreement reduces the footprint of the project and allows environmental groups or California Native American Tribes to purchase another 54.3 acres to conserve even more open space. The agreement also sets standards to minimize the project’s environmental harms such as minimized lighting, proper fencing to protect the oak and using native plants along the wildlife corridor.

“The Jurupa Oak (Quercus palmeri) is one of the world's oldest organisms, whose sheer existence is a miracle. It’s a living connection to the Ice Age, when woolly mammoths still roamed North America, and an acorn germinated to become this very plant,” said Nick Jensen, Ph.D., conservation program director for the California Native Plant Society. “We are thrilled that today's settlement significantly increases the buffer around the Jurupa Oak. It’s a critical safety measure to help ensure that it survives as a symbol of California’s remarkable biodiversity and resilience.”

The agreement came after the Center, California Native Plant Society, Endangered Habitats League and Friends of Riverside’s Hills sued the city of Jurupa Valley for approving the development without adequately analyzing the potential harms to the Palmer’s oak and surrounding environment and for violating the California Environmental Quality Act.

The Jurupa Oak a sprawling shrub that’s nearly 80 feet in length, is the oldest-known living plant in California and the third-oldest known living plant on Earth.

As part of today’s agreement, the environmental groups agreed to not challenge the project.