[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 14 (Monday, January 22, 2001)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 7354-7358]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-2102]
Presidential Documents
Federal Register / Vol. 66, No. 14 / Monday, January 22, 2001 /
Presidential Documents
[[Page 7354]]
Proclamation 7397 of January 17, 2001
Establishment of the Sonoran Desert National
Monument
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
The Sonoran Desert National Monument is a magnificent
example of untrammeled Sonoran desert landscape. The
area encompasses a functioning desert ecosystem with an
extraordinary array of biological, scientific, and
historic resources. The most biologically diverse of
the North American deserts, the monument consists of
distinct mountain ranges separated by wide valleys, and
includes large saguaro cactus forest communities that
provide excellent habitat for a wide range of wildlife
species.
The monument's biological resources include a
spectacular diversity of plant and animal species. The
higher peaks include unique woodland assemblages, while
the lower elevation lands offer one of the most
structurally complex examples of palo verde/mixed cacti
association in the Sonoran Desert. The dense stands of
leguminous trees and cacti are dominated by saguaros,
palo-verde trees, ironwood, prickly pear, and cholla.
Important natural water holes, known as tinajas, exist
throughout the monument. The endangered acuna pineapple
cactus is also found in the monument.
The most striking aspect of the plant communities
within the monument are the abundant saguaro cactus
forests. The saguaro is a signature plant of the
Sonoran Desert. Individual saguaro plants are indeed
magnificent, but a forest of these plants, together
with the wide variety of trees, shrubs, and herbaceous
plants that make up the forest community, is an
impressive site to behold. The saguaro cactus forests
within the monument are a national treasure, rivaling
those within the Saguaro National Park.
The rich diversity, density, and distribution of plants
in the Sand Tank Mountains area of the monument is
especially striking and can be attributed to the
management regime in place since the area was withdrawn
for military purposes in 1941. In particular, while
some public access to the area is allowed, no livestock
grazing has occurred for nearly 50 years. To extend the
extraordinary diversity and overall ecological health
of the Sand Tanks Mountains area, land adjacent and
with biological resources similar to the area withdrawn
for military purposes should be subject to a similar
management regime to the fullest extent possible.
The monument contains an abundance of packrat middens,
allowing for scientific analysis of plant species and
climates in past eras. Scientific analysis of the
midden shows that the area received far more
precipitation 20,000 years ago, and slowly became more
arid. Vegetation for the area changed from juniper-
oak-pinion pine woodland to the vegetation found today
in the Sonoran Desert, although a few plants from the
more mesic period, including the Kofa Mountain
barberry, Arizona rosewood, and junipers, remain on
higher elevations of north-facing slopes.
The lower elevations and flatter areas of the monument
contain the creosote-bursage plant community. This
plant community thrives in the open expanses between
the mountain ranges, and connects the other plant
communities together. Rare patches of desert grassland
can also be found throughout the monument, especially
in the Sand Tank Mountains area. The washes
[[Page 7355]]
in the area support a much denser vegetation community
than the surrounding desert, including mesquite,
ironwood, paloverde, desert honeysuckle, chuperosa, and
desert willow, as well as a variety of herbaceous
plants. This vegetation offers the dense cover bird
species need for successful nesting, foraging, and
escape, and birds heavily use the washes during
migration.
The diverse plant communities present in the monument
support a wide variety of wildlife, including the
endangered Sonoran pronghorn, a robust population of
desert bighorn sheep, especially in the Maricopa
Mountains area, and other mammalian species such as
mule deer, javelina, mountain lion, gray fox, and
bobcat. Bat species within the monument include the
endangered lesser long-nosed bat, the California leaf-
nosed bat, and the cave myotis. Over 200 species of
birds are found in the monument, including 59 species
known to nest in the Vekol Valley area. Numerous
species of raptors and owls inhabit the monument,
including the elf owl and the western screech owl. The
monument also supports a diverse array of reptiles and
amphibians, including the Sonoran desert tortoise and
the red-backed whiptail. The Bureau of Land Management
has designated approximately 25,000 acres of land in
the Maricopa Mountains area as critical habitat for the
desert tortoise. The Vekol Valley and Sand Tank
Mountain areas contain especially diverse and robust
populations of amphibians. During summer rainfall
events, thousands of Sonoran green toads in the Vekol
Valley can be heard moving around and calling out.
The monument also contains many significant
archaeological and historic sites, including rock art
sites, lithic quarries, and scattered artifacts. Vekol
Wash is believed to have been an important prehistoric
travel and trade corridor between the Hohokam and
tribes located in what is now Mexico. Signs of large
villages and permanent habitat sites occur throughout
the area, and particularly along the bajadas of the
Table Top Mountains. Occupants of these villages were
the ancestors of today's O'odham, Quechan, Cocopah,
Maricopa, and other tribes. The monument also contains
a much used trail corridor 23 miles long in which are
found remnants of several important historic trails,
including the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic
Trail, the Mormon Battalion Trail, and the Butterfield
Overland Stage Route.
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 Sonoran Desert 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 Sonoran Desert National
Monument, for the purpose of protecting the objects
identified above, all lands and interest in lands owned
or controlled by the United States within the
boundaries of the area described on the map entitled
``Sonoran Desert National Monument'' attached to and
forming a part of this proclamation. The Federal land
and interests in land reserved consist of approximately
486,149 acres, which is the smallest area compatible
with the proper care and management of the objects to
be protected.
For the purpose of protecting the objects identified
above, all motorized and mechanized vehicle use off
road will be prohibited, except for emergency or
authorized administrative purposes.
[[Page 7356]]
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.
The establishment of this monument is subject to valid
existing rights.
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. Lands
and interests in lands within the 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.
This proclamation does not reserve water as a matter of
Federal law nor relinquish any water rights held by the
Federal Government existing on this date. The Federal
land management agencies shall work with appropriate
State authorities to ensure that water resources needed
for monument purposes are available.
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. That portion identified as Area A
on the map, however, shall be managed under the
management arrangement established by section 3 of
Public Law No. 99-606, 100 Stat. 3460-61, until
November 6, 2001, at which time, pursuant to section
5(a) of Public Law No. 99-606, 100 Stat. 3462-63, the
military withdrawal terminates. At that time, the
Secretary of the Interior shall assume management
responsibility for Area A through the Bureau of Land
Management.
The Secretary of the Interior shall prepare a
management plan that addresses the actions, including
road closures or travel restrictions, necessary to
protect the objects identified in this proclamation.
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; provided, however, that grazing permits on
Federal lands within the monument south of Interstate
Highway 8 shall not be renewed at the end of their
current term; and provided further, that grazing on
Federal lands north of Interstate 8 shall be allowed to
continue only to the extent that the Bureau of Land
Management determines that grazing is compatible with
the paramount purpose of protecting the objects
identified in this proclamation.
Nothing in this proclamation shall be deemed to revoke
any existing withdrawal, reservation, or appropriation;
however, the national monument shall be the dominant
reservation.
Nothing in this proclamation shall preclude low level
overflights of military aircraft, the designation of
new units of special use airspace, or the use or
establishment of military flight training routes over
the lands included in this proclamation.
In order to protect the public during operations at the
adjacent Barry M. Goldwater Range, and to continue
management practices that have resulted in an
exceptionally well preserved natural resource, the
current procedures for public access to the portion of
the monument depicted as Area A on the attached map
shall remain in full force and effect, except to the
extent that the United States Air Force agrees to
different procedures which the Bureau of Land
Management determines are compatible with the
protection of the objects identified in this
proclamation.
[[Page 7357]]
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
seventeenth day of January, in the year of our Lord two
thousand one, and of the Independence of the United
States of America the two hundred and twenty-fifth.
(Presidential Sig.)
Billing code 3195-01-P
[[Page 7358]]
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TD22JA01.183
[FR Doc. 01-2102 Filed 1-19-01; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3195-01-C