Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 37 Issue 3 (Monday, January 22, 2001)

[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 37, Number 3 (Monday, January 22, 2001)]
[Pages 145-147]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 7394--Establishment of the Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks
National Monument

January 17, 2001

By the President of the United States

of America

A Proclamation

Located on the Pajarito Plateau in north central New Mexico, the
Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument is a remarkable outdoor
laboratory, offering an opportunity to observe, study, and experience
the geologic processes that shape natural landscapes, as well as other
cultural and biological objects of interest. The area is rich in pumice,
ash, and tuff deposits, the light-colored, cone-shaped tent rock
formations that are the products of explosive volcanic eruptions that
occurred between 6 and 7 million years ago. Small canyons lead inward
from cliff faces, and over time, wind and water have scooped openings of
all shapes and sizes in the rocks and have contoured the ends of the
ravines and canyons into smooth semicircles. In these canyons, erosion-
resistant caprocks

[[Page 146]]

protect the softer tents below. While the formations are uniform in
shape, they vary in height from a few feet to 90 feet, and the layering
of volcanic material intersperses bands of grey with beige colored rock.
Amid the formations and in contrast to the muted colors of the rocks
of the monument, vibrant green leaves and red bark of manzanita, a
shrubby species from the Sierra Madre of Mexico, cling to the cracks and
crevices of the cliff faces. Red-tailed hawks, kestrels, violet-green
swallows, and Western bluebirds soar above the canyons and use the
pinion and ponderosa covered terrain near the cliffs.
The complex landscape and spectacular geologic scenery of the Kasha-
Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument has been a focal point for visitors
for centuries. Human settlement is believed to have begun in the
monument as a series of campsites during the Archaic period, from
approximately 5500 B.C. During the fifteenth century, several large
ancestral pueblos were established in the area. Their descendants, the
Pueblo de Cochiti, still inhabit the surrounding area. Although the
Spanish explorer Don Juan de Onate reached the Pajarito Plateau in 1598,
it was not until the late eighteenth century that families began to
claim land grants around Tent Rocks from the Spanish Crown. Remnants of
human history are scattered throughout the monument.
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 Kasha-
Katuwe Tent Rocks 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 Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks
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 ``Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument'' attached to and
forming a part of this proclamation. The Federal land and interests in
land reserved consist of approximately 4,148 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 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 and
in close cooperation with the Pueblo de Cochiti, to implement the
purposes of this proclamation.
The Secretary of the Interior shall prepare, within 3 years of this
date, a management plan for this monument, and shall promulgate such
regulations for its management as he deems appropriate. The management
plan shall include appropriate transportation planning that addresses
the actions, including

[[Page 147]]

road closures or travel restrictions, necessary to protect the objects
identified in this proclamation and to further the purposes of the
American Indian Religious Freedom Act of August 11, 1978 (42 U.S.C.
1996).
Only a very small amount of livestock grazing occurs inside the
monument. The Secretary of the Interior shall retire the portion of the
grazing allotments within the monument, pursuant to applicable law,
unless the Secretary specifically finds that livestock grazing will
advance the purposes of the 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 New Mexico 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 Secretary
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 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 seventeenth day
of January, in the year of our Lord two thousand one, and of the
Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-
fifth.
William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 8:45 a.m., January 19,
2001]

Note: This proclamation was published in the Federal Register on
January 22.