Presidential Documents

2821

Federal Register

Vol. 65, No. 11

Tuesday, January 18, 2000

Proclamation 7264 of January 11, 2000

Establishment of the California Coastal National Monument

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

The islands, rocks, and pinnacles of the California Coastal National Monument overwhelm the viewer, as white-capped waves crash into the vertical

cliffs or deeply crevassed surge channels and frothy water empties back

into the ocean. Amidst that beauty lies irreplaceable scientific values vital

to protecting the fragile ecosystems of the California coastline. At land’s

end, the islands, rocks, exposed reefs, and pinnacles off the coast above

mean high tide provide havens for significant populations of sea mammals

and birds. They are part of a narrow and important flight lane in the

Pacific Flyway, providing essential habitat for feeding, perching, nesting,

and shelter.

The California Coastal National Monument is a biological treasure. The

thousands of islands, rocks, exposed reefs, and pinnacles are part of the

nearshore ocean zone that begins just off shore and ends at the boundary

between the continental shelf and continental slope. Waters of this zone

are rich in nutrients from upwelling currents and freshwater inflows, supporting a rich array of habitats and organisms. Productive oceanographic

factors, such as major ocean currents, stimulate critical biological productivity

and diversity in both nearshore and offshore ocean waters.

The monument contains many geologic formations that provide unique habitat for biota. Wave action exerts a strong influence on habitat distribution

within the monument. Beaches occur where wave action is light, boulder

fields occur in areas of greater wave activity, and rocky outcroppings occur

where wave action is greatest. The pounding surf within boulder fields

and rocky shores often creates small, but important, habitats known as

tidepools, which support creatures uniquely adapted for survival under such

extreme physical conditions. Although shoreline habitats may appear distinct

from those off shore, they are dependent upon each other, with vital and

dynamic exchange of nutrients and organisms being essential to maintaining

their healthy ecosystems. As part of California’s nearshore ocean zone, the

monument is rich in biodiversity and holds many species of scientific interest

that can be particularly sensitive to disturbance.

The monument’s vegetative character varies greatly. Larger rocks and islands

contain diverse growth. Dudleya, Atriplex-Baeria-Rumex, mixed grass-herb,

Polypodium, Distichlis, ice plant, Synthyris-Poppy, Eymus, Poa-Baeria, chaparral, and wetlands vegetation are all present. Larger rocks and islands

contain a diverse blend of the vegetation types.

The monument provides feeding and nesting habitat for an estimated 200,000

breeding seabirds. Development on the mainland has forced seabirds that

once fed and nested in the shoreline ecosystem to retreat to the areas

protected by the monument. Pelagic seabird species inhabit salt or brackish

water environments for at least part of their annual cycle and breed on

offshore islands and rocks. Gulls, the endangered California least tern, the

threatened brown pelican, and the snowy plover, among countless others,

all feed on the vegetation and establish their nests in the monument. Both

bald eagles and peregrine falcons are found within the monument.

2822 Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 11 / Tuesday, January 18, 2000 / Presidential Documents

The monument also provides forage and breeding habitat for several mammal

species. Pinnipeds are abundant, including the threatened southern sea otter

and the Guadalupe fur seal. The monument contains important shelter for

male California sea lions in the winter and breeding rookeries for threatened

northern (Steller) sea lions in the spring.

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 California Coastal

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 California Coastal National Monument,

for the purpose of protecting the objects identified above, all unappropriated

or unreserved lands and interests in lands owned or controlled by the

United States in the form of islands, rocks, exposed reefs, and pinnacles

above mean high tide within 12 nautical miles of the shoreline of the

State of California. The Federal land and interests in land reserved are

encompassed in the entire 840 mile Pacific coastline, which is the smallest

area compatible with the proper care and management of the objects to

be protected.

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, 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 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.

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 enlarge or diminish the jurisdiction or

authority of the State of California or the United States over submerged

or other lands within the territorial waters off the coast of California.

Nothing in this proclamation shall affect the rights or obligations of any

State or Federal oil or gas lessee within the territorial waters off the California

coast.

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.

Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 11 / Tuesday, January 18, 2000 / Presidential Documents 2823

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this eleventh day

of January, in the year of our Lord two thousand, and of the Independence

[FR Doc. 00–1295

Filed 1–14–00; 10:45 am]

Billing code 3195–01–P

of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-fourth.

œ–