National Park Inholdings Acquisitions

Inholdings are privately held parcels within the boundaries of government owned and managed land, such as national parks, national forest, state parks or other protected areas. Inholdings are the result of private ownership prior to the designation of the land as a national or state park or forest.

Over the past several decades conservation groups have worked to acquire and protect lands within these areas, either by direct acquisition or trades of land, in order to maintain and/or defragment large natural areas and protect existing ecosystems. Since 2006, the Mojave Desert Land Trust has worked diligently to acquire inholdings within the desert national parks – Joshua Tree National Park, Mojave National Preserve and Death Valley National Park.

To date, the Land Trust has acquired more than 500 inholding parcels totaling 27,000+ acres that will be preserved forever. There remains more than one thousand inholding parcels yet to be preserved in order to protect the ecosystems within the desert national parks.