[Federal Register Volume 65, Number 114 (Tuesday, June 13, 2000)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 37253-37257]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 00-15111]
Presidential Documents
Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 114 / Tuesday, June 13, 2000 /
Presidential Documents
[[Page 37253]]
Proclamation 7319 of June 9, 2000
Establishment of the Hanford Reach National
Monument
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
The Hanford Reach National Monument is a unique and
biologically diverse landscape, encompassing an array
of scientific and historic objects. This magnificent
area contains an irreplaceable natural and historic
legacy, preserved by unusual circumstances. Maintained
as a buffer area in a Federal reservation conducting
nuclear weapons development and, more recently,
environmental cleanup activities, with limits on
development and human use for the past 50 years, the
monument is now a haven for important and increasingly
scarce objects of scientific and historic interest.
Bisected by the stunning Hanford Reach of the Columbia
River, the monument contains the largest remnant of the
shrub-steppe ecosystem that once blanketed the Columbia
River Basin. The monument is also one of the few
remaining archaeologically rich areas in the western
Columbia Plateau, containing well-preserved remnants of
human history spanning more than 10,000 years. The
monument is equally rich in geologic history, with
dramatic landscapes that reveal the creative forces of
tectonic, volcanic, and erosive power.
The monument is a biological treasure, embracing
important riparian, aquatic, and upland shrub-steppe
habitats that are rare or in decline in other areas.
Within its mosaic of habitats, the monument supports a
wealth of increasingly uncommon native plant and animal
species, the size and diversity of which is unmatched
in the Columbia Basin. Migrating salmon, birds, and
hundreds of other native plant and animal species rely
on its natural ecosystems.
The monument includes the 51-mile long ``Hanford
Reach,'' the last free-flowing, nontidal stretch of the
Columbia River. The Reach contains islands, riffles,
gravel bars, oxbow ponds, and backwater sloughs that
support some of the most productive spawning areas in
the Northwest, where approximately 80 percent of the
upper Columbia Basin's fall chinook salmon spawn. It
also supports healthy runs of naturally-spawning
sturgeon and other highly-valued fish species. The loss
of other spawning grounds on the Columbia and its
tributaries has increased the importance of the Hanford
Reach for fisheries.
The monument contains one of the last remaining large
blocks of shrub-steppe ecosystems in the Columbia River
Basin, supporting an unusually high diversity of native
plant and animal species. A large number of rare and
sensitive plant species are found dispersed throughout
the monument. A recent inventory resulted in the
discovery of two plant species new to science, the
Umtanum desert buckwheat and the White Bluffs
bladderpod. Fragile microbiotic crusts, themselves of
biological interest, are well developed in the monument
and play an important role in stabilizing soils and
providing nutrients to plants.
The monument contains significant breeding populations
of nearly all steppe and shrub-steppe dependent birds,
including the loggerhead shrike, the sage sparrow, the
sage thrasher, and the ferruginous hawk. The Hanford
Reach and surrounding wetlands provide important stop-
over habitat for migratory birds, as well as habitat
for many resident species. The area is important
wintering habitat for bald eagles, white pelicans, and
many species of waterfowl such as mallards, green-
winged teal, pintails, goldeneye, gadwall, and
[[Page 37254]]
buffleheads. The monument's bluff habitats provide
valuable nesting sites for several bird species,
including prairie falcons, and important perch sites
for raptors such as peregrine falcons.
Many species of mammals are also found within the
monument, including elk, beaver, badgers, and bobcats.
Insect populations, though less conspicuous, include
species that have been lost elsewhere due to habitat
conversion, fragmentation, and application of
pesticides. A recent biological inventory uncovered 41
species and 2 subspecies of insects new to science and
many species not before identified in the State of
Washington. Such rich and diverse insect populations
are important to supporting the fauna in the monument.
In addition to its vital biological resources, the
monument contains significant geological and
paleontological objects. The late-Miocene to late-
Pliocene Ringold Formation, known as the White Bluffs,
was formed from river and lake sediments deposited by
the ancestral Columbia River and its tributaries. These
striking cliffs form the eastern bank of the Columbia
for nearly half of the length of the Reach, and are
significant for the mammalian fossils that they
contain. Fossil remains from rhinoceros, camel, and
mastodon, among others, have been found within these
bluffs.
The Hanford Dune Field, located on the western shore of
the Columbia in the southeastern part of the monument,
is also of geologic significance. This active area of
migrating barchan dunes and partially stabilized
transverse dunes rises 10 to 16 feet above the ground,
creating sandy habitats ranging from 2 to several
hundred acres in size.
The monument also contains important archaeological and
historic information. More than 10,000 years of human
activity in this largely arid environment have left
extensive archaeological deposits. Areas upland from
the river show evidence of concentrated human activity,
and recent surveys indicate extensive use of arid
lowlands for hunting. Hundreds of prehistoric
archaeological sites have been recorded, including the
remains of pithouses, graves, spirit quest monuments,
hunting camps, game drive complexes, quarries, and
hunting and kill sites. A number of Native American
groups still have cultural ties to the monument. The
monument also contains some historic structures and
other remains from more recent human activities,
including homesteads from small towns established along
the riverbanks in the early 20th century.
Section 2 of the Act of June 8, 1906 (34 Stat. 225, 16
U.S.C. 431), authorizes the President, in his
discretion, to declare by public proclamation historic
landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and
other objects of historic or scientific interest that
are situated upon the lands owned or controlled by the
Government of the United States to be national
monuments, and to reserve as a part thereof parcels of
land, the limits of which in all cases shall be
confined to the smallest area compatible with the
proper care and management of the objects to be
protected.
WHEREAS it appears that it would be in the public
interest to reserve such lands as a national monument
to be known as the Hanford Reach National Monument:
NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the
United States of America, by the authority vested in me
by section 2 of the Act of June 8, 1906 (34 Stat. 225,
16 U.S.C. 431), do proclaim that there are hereby set
apart and reserved as the Hanford Reach National
Monument, for the purpose of protecting the objects
identified above, all lands and interests in lands
owned or controlled by the United States within the
boundaries of the area described on the map entitled
``Hanford Reach National Monument'' attached to and
forming a part of this proclamation. The Federal land
and interests in land reserved consist of approximately
195,000 acres, which is the smallest area compatible
with the proper care and management of the objects to
be protected.
[[Page 37255]]
All Federal lands and interests in lands within the
boundaries of this monument are hereby appropriated and
withdrawn from all forms of entry, location, selection,
sale, or leasing or other disposition under the public
land laws, including but not limited to withdrawal from
location, entry, and patent under the mining laws, and
from disposition under all laws relating to mineral and
geothermal leasing, other than by exchange that
furthers the protective purposes of the monument.
For the purpose of protecting the objects identified
above, the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary
of Energy shall prohibit all motorized and mechanized
vehicle use off road, except for emergency or other
federally authorized purposes, including remediation
purposes. There is hereby reserved, as of the date of
this proclamation and subject to valid existing rights,
a quantity of water in the Columbia River sufficient to
fulfill the purposes for which this monument is
established. Nothing in this reservation shall be
construed as a relinquishment or reduction of any water
use or rights reserved or appropriated by the United
States on or before the date of this proclamation.
For the purpose of protecting the objects identified
above, the Secretary of the Interior shall prohibit
livestock grazing.
The monument shall be managed by the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service under existing agreements with the
Department of Energy, except that the Department of
Energy shall manage the lands within the monument that
are not subject to management agreements with the
Service, and in developing any management plans and
rules and regulations governing the portions of the
monument for which the Department of Energy has
management responsibility, the Secretary of Energy
shall consult with the Secretary of the Interior.
As the Department of Energy and the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service determine that lands within the
monument managed by the Department of Energy become
suitable for management by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will assume
management by agreement with the Department of Energy.
All agreements between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service and the Department of Energy shall be
consistent with the provisions of this proclamation.
Nothing in this proclamation shall affect the
responsibility of the Department of Energy under
environmental laws, including the remediation of
hazardous substances or the restoration of natural
resources at the Hanford facility; nor affect the
Department of Energy's statutory authority to control
public access or statutory responsibility to take other
measures for environmental remediation, monitoring,
security, safety, or emergency preparedness purposes;
nor affect any Department of Energy activities on lands
not included within the monument.
Nothing in this proclamation shall be deemed to enlarge
or diminish the jurisdiction of the State of Washington
with respect to fish and wildlife management.
Nothing in this proclamation shall enlarge or diminish
the rights of any Indian tribe.
The establishment of this monument is subject to valid
existing rights.
Nothing in this proclamation shall interfere with the
operation and maintenance of existing facilities of the
Columbia Basin Reclamation Project, the Federal
Columbia River Transmission System, or other existing
utility services that are located within the monument.
Existing Federal Columbia River Transmission System
facilities located within the monument may be replaced,
modified and expanded, and new facilities constructed
within the monument, as authorized by other applicable
law. Such replacement, modification, expansion, or
construction of new facilities shall be carried out in
a manner consistent with proper care and management of
the objects of this proclamation, to be determined in
accordance with the management arrangements previously
set out in this proclamation.
[[Page 37256]]
Nothing in this proclamation shall be deemed to revoke
any existing withdrawal, reservation, or appropriation;
however, the national monument shall be the dominant
reservation.
Warning is hereby given to all unauthorized persons not
to appropriate, injure, destroy, or remove any feature
of this monument and not to locate or settle upon any
of the lands thereof.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
ninth day of June, in the year of our Lord two
thousand, and of the Independence of the United States
of America the two hundred and twenty-fourth.
(Presidential Sig.)
Billing code 3195-01-P
[[Page 37257]]
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TD13JN00.003
[FR Doc. 00-15111
Filed 6-12-00; 10:47 am]
Billing code 3195-01-C