[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 23 (Monday, June 12, 2000)]
[Pages 1322-1324]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 7319--Establishment of the Hanford Reach National Monument

 June 9, 2000

 By the President of the United States

 of America

 A Proclamation

    The Hanford Reach National Monument is a unique and biologically 
diverse landscape, encompassing an array of scientific and historic 
objects. This magnificent area contains an irreplaceable natural and 
historic legacy, preserved by unusual circumstances. Maintained as a 
buffer area in a Federal reservation conducting nuclear weapons 
development and, more recently, environmental cleanup activities, with 
limits on development and human use for the past 50 years, the monument 
is now a haven for important and increasingly scarce objects of 
scientific and historic interest. Bisected by the stunning Hanford Reach 
of the Columbia River, the monument contains the largest remnant of the 
shrub-steppe ecosystem that once blanketed the Columbia River Basin. The 
monument is also one of the few remaining archaeologically rich areas in 
the western Columbia Plateau, containing well-preserved remnants of 
human history spanning more than 10,000 years. The monument is equally 
rich in geologic history, with dramatic landscapes that reveal the 
creative forces of tectonic, volcanic, and erosive power.
    The monument is a biological treasure, embracing important riparian, 
aquatic, and upland shrub-steppe habitats that are rare or in decline in 
other areas. Within its mosaic of habitats, the monument supports a 
wealth of increasingly uncommon native plant and animal species, the 
size and diversity of which is unmatched in the Columbia Basin. 
Migrating salmon, birds, and hundreds of other native plant and animal 
species rely on its natural ecosystems.
    The monument includes the 51-mile long ``Hanford Reach,'' the last 
free-flowing, nontidal stretch of the Columbia River. The Reach contains 
islands, riffles, gravel bars, oxbow ponds, and backwater sloughs that 
support some of the most productive spawning areas in the Northwest, 
where approximately 80 percent of the upper Columbia Basin's fall 
chinook salmon spawn. It also supports healthy runs of naturally-
spawning sturgeon and other highly-valued fish species. The loss of 
other spawning grounds on the Columbia and its tributaries has increased 
the importance of the Hanford Reach for fisheries.
    The monument contains one of the last remaining large blocks of 
shrub-steppe ecosystems in the Columbia River Basin, supporting an 
unusually high diversity of native plant and animal species. A large 
number of rare and sensitive plant species are found dispersed 
throughout the monument. A recent inventory resulted in the discovery of 
two plant species new to science, the Umtanum desert buckwheat and the 
White Bluffs bladderpod. Fragile microbiotic crusts, themselves of 
biological interest, are well developed in the monument and play an 
important role in stabilizing soils and providing nutrients to plants.
    The monument contains significant breeding populations of nearly all 
steppe and shrub-steppe dependent birds, including the loggerhead 
shrike, the sage sparrow, the sage thrasher, and the ferruginous hawk. 
The Hanford Reach and surrounding wetlands provide important stop-over 
habitat for migratory birds, as well as habitat for many resident 
species. The area is important wintering habitat for bald eagles, white 
pelicans, and many species of waterfowl such as mallards, green-winged 
teal, pintails, goldeneye, gadwall, and buffleheads. The monument's 
bluff habitats provide valuable nesting sites for several bird species, 
including prairie falcons, and important perch sites for raptors such as 
peregrine falcons.
    Many species of mammals are also found within the monument, 
including elk, beaver, badgers, and bobcats. Insect populations, though 
less conspicuous, include species that have been lost elsewhere due to 
habitat conversion, fragmentation, and application of pesticides. A 
recent biological inventory uncovered 41 species and 2 subspecies of 
insects new to science and many species not before identified in the 
State of Washington. Such rich and diverse insect populations are 
important to supporting the fauna in the monument.

[[Page 1323]]

    In addition to its vital biological resources, the monument contains 
significant geological and paleontological objects. The late-Miocene to 
late-Pliocene Ringold Formation, known as the White Bluffs, was formed 
from river and lake sediments deposited by the ancestral Columbia River 
and its tributaries. These striking cliffs form the eastern bank of the 
Columbia for nearly half of the length of the Reach, and are significant 
for the mammalian fossils that they contain. Fossil remains from 
rhinoceros, camel, and mastodon, among others, have been found within 
these bluffs.
    The Hanford Dune Field, located on the western shore of the Columbia 
in the southeastern part of the monument, is also of geologic 
significance. This active area of migrating barchan dunes and partially 
stabilized transverse dunes rises 10 to 16 feet above the ground, 
creating sandy habitats ranging from 2 to several hundred acres in size.
    The monument also contains important archaeological and historic 
information. More than 10,000 years of human activity in this largely 
arid environment have left extensive archaeological deposits. Areas 
upland from the river show evidence of concentrated human activity, and 
recent surveys indicate extensive use of arid lowlands for hunting. 
Hundreds of prehistoric archaeological sites have been recorded, 
including the remains of pithouses, graves, spirit quest monuments, 
hunting camps, game drive complexes, quarries, and hunting and kill 
sites. A number of Native American groups still have cultural ties to 
the monument. The monument also contains some historic structures and 
other remains from more recent human activities, including homesteads 
from small towns established along the riverbanks in the early 20th 
century.
    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 Hanford 
Reach 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 Hanford Reach 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 
``Hanford Reach National Monument'' attached to and forming a part of 
this proclamation. The Federal land and interests in land reserved 
consist of approximately 195,000 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 and the Secretary of Energy shall prohibit all 
motorized and mechanized vehicle use off road, except for emergency or 
other federally authorized purposes, including remediation purposes. 
There is hereby reserved, as of the date of this proclamation and 
subject to valid existing rights, a quantity of water in the Columbia 
River sufficient to fulfill the purposes for which this monument is 
established. 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.

[[Page 1324]]

    For the purpose of protecting the objects identified above, the 
Secretary of the Interior shall prohibit livestock grazing.
    The monument shall be managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 
under existing agreements with the Department of Energy, except that the 
Department of Energy shall manage the lands within the monument that are 
not subject to management agreements with the Service, and in developing 
any management plans and rules and regulations governing the portions of 
the monument for which the Department of Energy has management 
responsibility, the Secretary of Energy shall consult with the Secretary 
of the Interior.
    As the Department of Energy and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 
determine that lands within the monument managed by the Department of 
Energy become suitable for management by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife 
Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will assume management by 
agreement with the Department of Energy. All agreements between the U.S. 
Fish and Wildlife Service and the Department of Energy shall be 
consistent with the provisions of this proclamation.
    Nothing in this proclamation shall affect the responsibility of the 
Department of Energy under environmental laws, including the remediation 
of hazardous substances or the restoration of natural resources at the 
Hanford facility; nor affect the Department of Energy's statutory 
authority to control public access or statutory responsibility to take 
other measures for environmental remediation, monitoring, security, 
safety, or emergency preparedness purposes; nor affect any Department of 
Energy activities on lands not included within the monument.
    Nothing in this proclamation shall be deemed to enlarge or diminish 
the jurisdiction of the State of Washington with respect to fish and 
wildlife management.
    Nothing in this proclamation shall enlarge or diminish the rights of 
any Indian tribe.
    The establishment of this monument is subject to valid existing 
rights.
    Nothing in this proclamation shall interfere with the operation and 
maintenance of existing facilities of the Columbia Basin Reclamation 
Project, the Federal Columbia River Transmission System, or other 
existing utility services that are located within the monument. Existing 
Federal Columbia River Transmission System facilities located within the 
monument may be replaced, modified and expanded, and new facilities 
constructed within the monument, as authorized by other applicable law. 
Such replacement, modification, expansion, or construction of new 
facilities shall be carried out in a manner consistent with proper care 
and management of the objects of this proclamation, to be determined in 
accordance with the management arrangements previously set out in 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.
    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.