[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.