[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 2 (Monday, January 17, 2000)]
[Pages 43-44]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]
<R04>
Proclamation 7264--Establishment of the California Coastal National
Monument
January 11, 2000
By the President of the United States
of America
A Proclamation
The islands, rocks, and pinnacles of the California Coastal National
Monument overwhelm the viewer, as white-capped waves crash into the
vertical cliffs or deeply crevassed surge channels and frothy water
empties back into the ocean. Amidst that beauty lies irreplaceable
scientific values vital to protecting the fragile ecosystems of the
California coastline. At land's end, the islands, rocks, exposed reefs,
and pinnacles off the coast above mean high tide provide havens for
significant populations of sea mammals and birds. They are part of a
narrow and important flight lane in the Pacific Flyway, providing
essential habitat for feeding, perching, nesting, and shelter.
The California Coastal National Monument is a biological treasure.
The thousands of islands, rocks, exposed reefs, and pinnacles are part
of the nearshore ocean zone that begins just off shore and ends at the
boundary between the continental shelf and continental slope. Waters of
this zone are rich in nutrients from upwelling currents and freshwater
inflows, supporting a rich array of habitats and organisms. Productive
oceanographic factors, such as major ocean currents, stimulate critical
biological productivity and diversity in both nearshore and offshore
ocean waters.
The monument contains many geologic formations that provide unique
habitat for biota. Wave action exerts a strong influence on habitat
distribution within the monument. Beaches occur where wave action is
light, boulder fields occur in areas of greater wave activity, and rocky
outcroppings occur where wave action is greatest. The pounding surf
within boulder fields and rocky shores often creates small, but
important, habitats known as tidepools, which support creatures uniquely
adapted for survival under such extreme physical conditions. Although
shoreline habitats may appear distinct from those off shore, they are
dependent upon each other, with vital and dynamic exchange of nutrients
and organisms being essential to maintaining their healthy ecosystems.
As part of California's nearshore ocean zone, the monument is rich in
biodiversity and holds many species of scientific interest that can be
particularly sensitive to disturbance.
The monument's vegetative character varies greatly. Larger rocks and
islands contain diverse growth. Dudleya, Atriplex-Baeria-Rumex, mixed
grass-herb, Polypodium, Distichlis, ice plant, Synthyris-Poppy, Eymus,
Poa-Baeria, chapparal, and wetlands vegetation are all present. Larger
rocks and islands contain a diverse blend of the vegetation types.
The monument provides feeding and nesting habitat for an estimated
200,000 breeding seabirds. Development on the mainland has forced
seabirds that once fed and nested in the shoreline ecosystem to retreat
to the areas protected by the monument. Pelagic seabird species inhabit
salt or brackish water environments for at least part of their annual
cycle and breed on offshore islands and rocks. Gulls, the endangered
California least tern, the threatened brown pelican, and the snowy
plover, among countless others, all feed on the vegetation and establish
their nests in the monument. Both bald eagles and peregrine falcons are
found within the monument.
The monument also provides forage and breeding habitat for several
mammal species. Pinnipeds are abundant, including the threatened
southern sea otter and the Guadalupe fur seal. The monument contains
important shelter for male California sea lions in the winter and
breeding rookeries for threatened northern (Steller) sea lions in the
spring.
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
[[Page 44]]
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 California
Coastal 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 California Coastal National
Monument, for the purpose of protecting the objects identified above,
all unappropriated or unreserved lands and interests in lands owned or
controlled by the United States in the form of islands, rocks, exposed
reefs, and pinnacles above mean high tide within 12 nautical miles of
the shoreline of the State of California. The Federal land and interests
in land reserved are encompassed in the entire 840 mile Pacific
coastline, which is the smallest area compatible with the proper care
and management of the objects to be protected.
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, 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 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.
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 enlarge or diminish the
jurisdiction or authority of the State of California or the United
States over submerged or other lands within the territorial waters off
the coast of California.
Nothing in this proclamation shall affect the rights or obligations
of any State or Federal oil or gas lessee within the territorial waters
off the California coast.
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 eleventh day of
January, 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, 10:45 a.m., January 14,
2000]
Note: This proclamation will be published in the Federal Register on
January 18.