Basin wiki · Places
California Desert Protection Act (1994)
CDPA · Public Law 103-433
Public Law 103-433, signed October 31, 1994. The statute that made Joshua Tree a national park.
What it did here
The California Desert Protection Act of 1994 abolished Joshua Tree National Monument and established Joshua Tree National Park. It brought designated Bureau of Land Management lands into the park, applied national-park rules, and withdrew that land from new mining entry. It designated wilderness, including additions at Joshua Tree. The same law established Death Valley National Park and the Mojave National Preserve. Senator Dianne Feinstein’s S.21 became Public Law 103-433 on October 31, 1994.
Why it still comes up
Park boundaries, wilderness boundaries, and arguments about what used to be open BLM land all cite this act. Inholdings and the difference between a monument and a park have local consequences: where you can drive, where a dog can go, where a dirt road became a trail. Congress.gov has the bill. The park’s history page is the plain-language companion.
What it did not settle
The act did not incorporate Yucca Valley or Twentynine Palms, did not write county zoning, and did not settle Marine Corps use of Johnson Valley. Those are other governments and later decisions. When a comment says the Desert Protection Act bans something, look up the section before repeating it. Wilderness rules are real, and they are specific.
How to cite it
Name the statute or the park, and say which rule you mean. In local arguments “CDPA” sometimes just means “I want the park bigger” or “I want it smaller.” The law is a boundary and a set of management rules. The Statutes at Large PDF is the pinpoint text; park establishment is in Title IV.