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 150-153]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 7397--Establishment of the Sonoran Desert National
Monument

January 17, 2001

By the President of the United States

of America

A Proclamation

The Sonoran Desert National Monument is a magnificent example of
untrammeled Sonoran desert landscape. The area encompasses a functioning
desert ecosystem with an extraordinary array of biological, scientific,
and historic resources. The most biologically diverse of the North
American deserts, the monument consists of distinct mountain ranges
separated by wide valleys, and includes large saguaro cactus forest
communities that provide excellent habitat for a wide range of wildlife
species.
The monument's biological resources include a spectacular diversity
of plant and animal species. The higher peaks include unique woodland
assemblages, while the lower elevation lands offer one of the most
structurally complex examples of palo verde/mixed cacti association in
the Sonoran Desert. The dense stands of leguminous trees and cacti are
dominated by saguaros, palo-verde trees, ironwood, prickly pear, and
cholla. Important

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natural water holes, known as tinajas, exist throughout the monument.
The endangered acuna pineapple cactus is also found in the monument.
The most striking aspect of the plant communities within the
monument are the abundant saguaro cactus forests. The saguaro is a
signature plant of the Sonoran Desert. Individual saguaro plants are
indeed magnificent, but a forest of these plants, together with the wide
variety of trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants that make up the forest
community, is an impressive site to behold. The saguaro cactus forests
within the monument are a national treasure, rivaling those within the
Saguaro National Park.
The rich diversity, density, and distribution of plants in the Sand
Tank Mountains area of the monument is especially striking and can be
attributed to the management regime in place since the area was
withdrawn for military purposes in 1941. In particular, while some
public access to the area is allowed, no livestock grazing has occurred
for nearly 50 years. To extend the extraordinary diversity and overall
ecological health of the Sand Tanks Mountains area, land adjacent and
with biological resources similar to the area withdrawn for military
purposes should be subject to a similar management regime to the fullest
extent possible.
The monument contains an abundance of packrat middens, allowing for
scientific analysis of plant species and climates in past eras.
Scientific analysis of the midden shows that the area received far more
precipitation 20,000 years ago, and slowly became more arid. Vegetation
for the area changed from juniper-oak-pinion pine woodland to the
vegetation found today in the Sonoran Desert, although a few plants from
the more mesic period, including the Kofa Mountain barberry, Arizona
rosewood, and junipers, remain on higher elevations of north-facing
slopes.
The lower elevations and flatter areas of the monument contain the
creosote-bursage plant community. This plant community thrives in the
open expanses between the mountain ranges, and connects the other plant
communities together. Rare patches of desert grassland can also be found
throughout the monument, especially in the Sand Tank Mountains area. The
washes in the area support a much denser vegetation community than the
surrounding desert, including mesquite, ironwood, paloverde, desert
honeysuckle, chuperosa, and desert willow, as well as a variety of
herbaceous plants. This vegetation offers the dense cover bird species
need for successful nesting, foraging, and escape, and birds heavily use
the washes during migration.
The diverse plant communities present in the monument support a wide
variety of wildlife, including the endangered Sonoran pronghorn, a
robust population of desert bighorn sheep, especially in the Maricopa
Mountains area, and other mammalian species such as mule deer, javelina,
mountain lion, gray fox, and bobcat. Bat species within the monument
include the endangered lesser long-nosed bat, the California leaf-nosed
bat, and the cave myotis. Over 200 species of birds are found in the
monument, including 59 species known to nest in the Vekol Valley area.
Numerous species of raptors and owls inhabit the monument, including the
elf owl and the western screech owl. The monument also supports a
diverse array of reptiles and amphibians, including the Sonoran desert
tortoise and the red-backed whiptail. The Bureau of Land Management has
designated approximately 25,000 acres of land in the Maricopa Mountains
area as critical habitat for the desert tortoise. The Vekol Valley and
Sand Tank Mountain areas contain especially diverse and robust
populations of amphibians. During summer rainfall events, thousands of
Sonoran green toads in the Vekol Valley can be heard moving around and
calling out.
The monument also contains many significant archaeological and
historic sites, including rock art sites, lithic quarries, and scattered
artifacts. Vekol Wash is believed to have been an important prehistoric
travel and trade corridor between the Hohokam and tribes located in what
is now Mexico. Signs of large villages and permanent habitat sites occur
throughout the area, and particularly along the bajadas of the Table Top
Mountains. Occupants of these villages were the ancestors of today's
O'odham, Quechan, Cocopah, Maricopa, and other tribes. The monument also
contains a much used trail

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corridor 23 miles long in which are found remnants of several important
historic trails, including the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic
Trail, the Mormon Battalion Trail, and the Butterfield Overland Stage
Route.
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 Sonoran
Desert 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 Sonoran Desert National
Monument, for the purpose of protecting the objects identified above,
all lands and interest in lands owned or controlled by the United States
within the boundaries of the area described on the map entitled
``Sonoran Desert National Monument'' attached to and forming a part of
this proclamation. The Federal land and interests in land reserved
consist of approximately 486,149 acres, which is the smallest area
compatible with the proper care and management of the objects to be
protected.
For the purpose of protecting the objects identified above, all
motorized and mechanized vehicle use off road will be prohibited, except
for emergency or authorized administrative purposes.
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.
The establishment of this monument is subject to valid existing
rights.
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. Lands
and interests in lands within the 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.
This proclamation does not reserve water as a matter of Federal law
nor relinquish any water rights held by the Federal Government existing
on this date. The Federal land management agencies shall work with
appropriate State authorities to ensure that water resources needed for
monument purposes are available.
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. That portion identified as
Area A on the map, however, shall be managed under the management
arrangement established by section 3 of Public Law No. 99-606, 100 Stat.
3460-61, until November 6, 2001, at which time, pursuant to section 5(a)
of Public Law No. 99-606, 100 Stat. 3462-63, the military withdrawal
terminates. At that time, the Secretary of the Interior shall assume
management responsibility for Area A through the Bureau of Land
Management.
The Secretary of the Interior shall prepare a management plan that
addresses the actions, including road closures or travel restrictions,
necessary to protect the objects identified in this proclamation.
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; provided, however, that grazing permits on
Federal lands within the monument south of Interstate Highway 8

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shall not be renewed at the end of their current term; and provided
further, that grazing on Federal lands north of Interstate 8 shall be
allowed to continue only to the extent that the Bureau of Land
Management determines that grazing is compatible with the paramount
purpose of protecting the objects identified 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.
Nothing in this proclamation shall preclude low level overflights of
military aircraft, the designation of new units of special use airspace,
or the use or establishment of military flight training routes over the
lands included in this proclamation.
In order to protect the public during operations at the adjacent
Barry M. Goldwater Range, and to continue management practices that have
resulted in an exceptionally well preserved natural resource, the
current procedures for public access to the portion of the monument
depicted as Area A on the attached map shall remain in full force and
effect, except to the extent that the United States Air Force agrees to
different procedures which the Bureau of Land Management determines are
compatible with the protection of the objects identified in this
proclamation.
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.