    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 23 (Monday, June 12, 2000)]
    [Pages 1325-1326]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    Proclamation 7320--Establishment of the Ironwood Forest National
    Monument

     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

    [[Page 1326]]

    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.