[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.