# Joshua Tree National Park Expansion Act

This bill makes Joshua Tree National Park bigger by adding about 20,000 acres of land to it. Right now, that land is managed by the Bureau of Land Management, but the bill transfers it to the National Park Service so it becomes part of the official park. Think of it like expanding a city's boundaries to include neighboring areas that will now follow the same rules and get the same protections as the rest of the park.

The land being added is shown on a specific map from June 2024, so there's no confusion about exactly which areas are included. The National Park Service can acquire any remaining private land within the expanded park boundary through donations, purchases from willing sellers, or land exchanges. However, if California state or local government owns land in the expansion area, the federal government can only get it through donation or trade, not by buying it outright. This respects state and local property rights while still allowing the park to grow.

The bill also includes a small technical fix to correct a map reference number in an earlier conservation law, and it renames the Cottonwood Visitor Center at Joshua Tree to the "Dianne Feinstein Visitor Center" in honor of the late California senator. For visitors and locals, this expansion means more desert landscape will receive national park protections, potentially limiting certain commercial activities in the added areas while preserving them for recreation and conservation. The practical effect is that Joshua Tree becomes a larger protected area, which could affect anyone with property, mining interests, or business plans in the newly included territory.