Lands Bill To Expand Joshua Tree and Death Valley National Parks

Above, the south entrance to Joshus Tree National Park. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

The U.S. Senate passed a massive lands bill. If it is enacted, it will expand Joshua Tree National Park and Death Valley National Park.

According to the San Gabriel Valley Tribune:

The massive measure combines more than 100 public-lands bills that promote wilderness protection and open-space recreation opportunities, while restoring funding for maintaining parks and national monuments. 

The bill permanently reauthorizes the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund, which supports conservation and outdoor recreation projects across the country. The program expired last fall after Congress could not agree on language to extend it. 

One bill in the package withdraws 370,000 acres in Montana and Washington state from mineral development. 

The Senate approved the bill, 92-8, sending it to the House. 

Closer to home, the Senate package includes passage of the Desert Protection and Recreation Act, authored by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. 

Feinstein’s bill adds 4,518 acres to Joshua Tree National Park in Twentynine Palms, and 35,292 acres to Death Valley National Park, including about 1,600 acres donated by the Mojave Desert Land Trust.

To read more, go here.