[Federal Register Volume 65, Number 114 (Tuesday, June 13, 2000)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 37259-37262]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 00-15112]
Presidential Documents
Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 114 / Tuesday, June 13, 2000 /
Presidential Documents
[[Page 37259]]
Proclamation 7320 of June 9, 2000
Establishment of the Ironwood Forest National
Monument
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
The landscape of the Ironwood Forest National Monument
is swathed with the rich, drought-adapted vegetation of
the Sonoran Desert. The monument contains objects of
scientific interest throughout its desert environment.
Stands of ironwood, palo verde, and saguaro blanket the
monument floor beneath the rugged mountain ranges,
including the Silver Bell Mountains. Ragged Top
Mountain is a biological and geological crown jewel
amid the depositional plains in the monument.
The monument presents a quintessential view of the
Sonoran Desert with ancient legume and cactus forests.
The geologic and topographic variability of the
monument contributes to the area's high biological
diversity. Ironwoods, which can live in excess of 800
years, generate a chain of influences on associated
understory plants, affecting their dispersal,
germination, establishment, and rates of growth.
Ironwood is the dominant nurse plant in this region,
and the Silver Bell Mountains support the highest
density of ironwood trees recorded in the Sonoran
Desert. Ironwood trees provide, among other things,
roosting sites for hawks and owls, forage for desert
bighorn sheep, protection for saguaro against freezing,
burrows for tortoises, flowers for native bees, dense
canopy for nesting of white-winged doves and other
birds, and protection against sunburn for night
blooming cereus.
The ironwood-bursage habitat in the Silver Bell
Mountains is associated with more than 674 species,
including 64 mammalian and 57 bird species. Within the
Sonoran Desert, Ragged Top Mountain contains the
greatest richness of species. The monument is home to
species federally listed as threatened or endangered,
including the Nichols turk's head cactus and the lesser
long-nosed bat, and contains historic and potential
habitat for the cactus ferruginous pygmy-owl. The
desert bighorn sheep in the monument may be the last
viable population indigenous to the Tucson basin.
In addition to the biological and geological resources,
the area holds abundant rock art sites and other
archeological objects of scientific interest. Humans
have inhabited the area for more than 5,000 years. More
than 200 sites from the prehistoric Hohokam period (600
A.D. to 1450 A.D.) have been recorded in the area. Two
areas within the monument have been listed on the
National Register of Historic Places, the Los Robles
Archeological District and the Cocoraque Butte
Archeological District. The archeological artifacts
include rhyolite and brown chert chipped stone, plain
and decorated ceramics, and worked shell from the Gulf
of California. The area also contains the remnants of
the Mission Santa Ana, the last mission constructed in
Pimeria Alta.
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
[[Page 37260]]
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 Ironwood Forest 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 Ironwood Forest 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
``Ironwood Forest National Monument'' attached to and
forming a part of this proclamation. The Federal land
and interests in land reserved consist of approximately
128,917 acres, which is the smallest area compatible
with the proper care and management of the objects to
be protected.
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 shall prohibit all
motorized and mechanized vehicle use off road, except
for emergency or authorized administrative purposes.
Lands and interests in lands within the proposed
monument not owned by the United States shall be
reserved as a part of the monument upon acquisition of
title thereto by the United States.
The Secretary of the Interior shall manage the monument
through the Bureau of Land Management, pursuant to
applicable legal authorities, to implement the purposes
of this proclamation.
The Secretary of the Interior shall prepare a
transportation plan that addresses the actions,
including road closures or travel restrictions,
necessary to protect the objects identified in this
proclamation.
The establishment of this monument is subject to valid
existing rights.
Nothing in this proclamation shall be deemed to enlarge
or diminish the jurisdiction of the State of Arizona
with respect to fish and wildlife management.
This proclamation does not reserve water as a matter of
Federal law. 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. The
Bureau of Land Management shall work with appropriate
State authorities to ensure that any water resources
needed for monument purposes are available.
Nothing in this proclamation shall be deemed to enlarge
or diminish the rights of any Indian tribe.
Laws, regulations, and policies followed by the Bureau
of Land Management in issuing and administering grazing
permits or leases on all lands under its jurisdiction
shall continue to apply with regard to the lands in the
monument.
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.
[[Page 37261]]
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 37262]]
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TD13JN00.004
[FR Doc. 00-15112
Filed 6-12-00; 10:47 am]
Billing code 3195-01-C