[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 14 (Monday, January 22, 2001)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 7343-7346]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-2099]


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  Federal Register / Vol. 66, No. 14 / Monday, January 22, 2001 / 
Presidential Documents  

[[Page 7343]]


                Proclamation 7394 of January 17, 2001

                
Establishment of the Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks 
                National Monument

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                Located on the Pajarito Plateau in north central New 
                Mexico, the Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument 
                is a remarkable outdoor laboratory, offering an 
                opportunity to observe, study, and experience the 
                geologic processes that shape natural landscapes, as 
                well as other cultural and biological objects of 
                interest. The area is rich in pumice, ash, and tuff 
                deposits, the light-colored, cone-shaped tent rock 
                formations that are the products of explosive volcanic 
                eruptions that occurred between 6 and 7 million years 
                ago. Small canyons lead inward from cliff faces, and 
                over time, wind and water have scooped openings of all 
                shapes and sizes in the rocks and have contoured the 
                ends of the ravines and canyons into smooth 
                semicircles. In these canyons, erosion-resistant 
                caprocks protect the softer tents below. While the 
                formations are uniform in shape, they vary in height 
                from a few feet to 90 feet, and the layering of 
                volcanic material intersperses bands of grey with beige 
                colored rock.

                Amid the formations and in contrast to the muted colors 
                of the rocks of the monument, vibrant green leaves and 
                red bark of manzanita, a shrubby species from the 
                Sierra Madre of Mexico, cling to the cracks and 
                crevices of the cliff faces. Red-tailed hawks, 
                kestrels, violet-green swallows, and Western bluebirds 
                soar above the canyons and use the pinion and ponderosa 
                covered terrain near the cliffs.

                The complex landscape and spectacular geologic scenery 
                of the Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument has 
                been a focal point for visitors for centuries. Human 
                settlement is believed to have begun in the monument as 
                a series of campsites during the Archaic period, from 
                approximately 5500 B.C. During the fifteenth century, 
                several large ancestral pueblos were established in the 
                area. Their descendants, the Pueblo de Cochiti, still 
                inhabit the surrounding area. Although the Spanish 
                explorer Don Juan de Onate reached the Pajarito Plateau 
                in 1598, it was not until the late eighteenth century 
                that families began to claim land grants around Tent 
                Rocks from the Spanish Crown. Remnants of human history 
                are scattered throughout the monument.

                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 Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks 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

[[Page 7344]]

                June 8, 1906 (34 Stat. 225, 16 U.S.C. 431), do proclaim 
                that there are hereby set apart and reserved as the 
                Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks 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 ``Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks 
                National Monument'' attached to and forming a part of 
                this proclamation. The Federal land and interests in 
                land reserved consist of approximately 4,148 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 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 and in close cooperation 
                with the Pueblo de Cochiti, to implement the purposes 
                of this proclamation.

                The Secretary of the Interior shall prepare, within 3 
                years of this date, a management plan for this 
                monument, and shall promulgate such regulations for its 
                management as he deems appropriate. The management plan 
                shall include appropriate transportation planning that 
                addresses the actions, including road closures or 
                travel restrictions, necessary to protect the objects 
                identified in this proclamation and to further the 
                purposes of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act 
                of August 11, 1978 (42 U.S.C. 1996).

                Only a very small amount of livestock grazing occurs 
                inside the monument. The Secretary of the Interior 
                shall retire the portion of the grazing allotments 
                within the monument, pursuant to applicable law, unless 
                the Secretary specifically finds that livestock grazing 
                will advance the purposes of the 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 New Mexico 
                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 
                Secretary 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 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 
                seventeenth day of January, in the year of our Lord two 
                thousand one, and of the

[[Page 7345]]

                Independence of the United States of America the two 
                hundred and twenty-fifth.

                    (Presidential Sig.)

Billing code 3195-01-P

[[Page 7346]]

[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TD22JA01.180


[FR Doc. 01-2099 Filed 1-19-01; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3195-01-C