---
kind: "section"
citation: "16 U.S.C. § 410aaa–21"
title: "16"
title_heading: "Conservation"
number: "410aaa–21"
heading: "Findings"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/16/410aaa-21"
units:
  - "Chapter 1 — National Parks, Military Parks, Monuments, and Seashores"
  - "Subchapter LIX–Y — California Desert Lands Parks, Preserve, and Off-Highway Vehicle Recreation Areas"
  - "Part B — Joshua Tree National Park"
---

# §410aaa–21. Findings


The Congress finds that—

- (1) a proclamation by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1936 established Joshua Tree National Monument to protect various objects of historical and scientific interest;
- (2) Joshua Tree National Monument today is recognized as a major [unit](/usc/16/430f–7.md?p=4) of the National [Park](/usc/16/410r–5.md?p=c-3) System, having extraordinary values enjoyed by millions of visitors;
- (3) the monument boundaries as modified in 1950 and 1961 exclude and thereby expose to incompatible development and inconsistent management, contiguous [Federal lands](/usc/16/620e.md?p=2) of essential and superlative natural, ecological, archeological, paleontological, cultural, historical, and [wilderness](/usc/16/3102.md?p=13) values;
- (4) Joshua Tree National Monument should be enlarged by the [addition](/usc/16/410r–5.md?p=c-2) of contiguous [Federal lands](/usc/16/620e.md?p=2) of national [park](/usc/16/410r–5.md?p=c-3) caliber, and afforded full recognition and statutory protection as a National [Park](/usc/16/410r–5.md?p=c-3); and
- (5) the nondesignated [wilderness](/usc/16/3102.md?p=13) within Joshua Tree should receive statutory protection by designation pursuant to the Wilderness Act [[16 U.S.C. 1131](/usc/16/1131.md) et seq.].

## Source credit

(Pub. L. 103–433, title IV, § 401, Oct. 31, 1994, 108 Stat. 4487.)

## Notes

### Editorial Notes

### References in Text

The Wilderness Act, referred to in par. (5), is Pub. L. 88–577, Sept. 3, 1964, 78 Stat. 890, which is classified generally to chapter 23 (§ 1131 et seq.) of this title. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see Short Title note set out under section 1131 of this title and Tables.