[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 
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  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