Sen. Feinstein seeks additional protections for land in California desert

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., has announced that she will introduce legislation aimed at expanding protections of public land in the Mojave Desert.

The bill, which will be called the California Desert Protection Act of 2010, would create two new national monuments, expand Death Valley National Park and Joshua Tree National Park, and designate 250,000 acres of wilderness near Fort Irwin.

Feinstein, who sponsored another landmark measure aimed at preserving land in the Mojave Desert in 1994, told the Los Angeles Times that she thought the bill could become law in 2010.