Monday, June 12, 2000

 

Volume 36, Issue 23; ISSN: 0511-4187

 

Proclamation 7320--Establishment of the Ironwood Forest National Monument

William J Clinton

 

 

� June 9, 2000

 

 

� 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 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.

 

 

� 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.

 

 

� William J. Clinton

 

 

� [Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 10:47 a.m., June

12, 2000]

 

 

� NOTE: This proclamation will be published in the Federal Register

on June 13.