Presidential Documents

Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 114 / Tuesday, June 13, 2000 / Presidential Documents 37259

Proclamation 7320 of June 9, 2000

Establishment of the Ironwood Forest National Monument

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

37260 Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 114 / Tuesday, June 13, 2000 / Presidential Documents

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 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.

Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 114 / Tuesday, June 13, 2000 / Presidential Documents 37261

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

Billing code 3195–01–P

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

œ–

37262 Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 114 / Tuesday, June 13, 2000 / Presidential Documents

[FR Doc. 00–15112

Filed 6–12–00; 10:47 am]

Billing code 3195–01–C