Monday, January 22, 2001

 

Volume 37, Issue 3; ISSN: 0511-4187

 

Proclamation 7394--establishment of the Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National

Monument

William J Clinton

 

 

� 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 mice, ash, and tuff deposits, the light-colored,

coneshaped 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 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 an 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 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.