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 Proclamations Proc. 7320 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 v%otation of the Sonoran Desert. The monument contains objects of scientific interest throughout its desert environment. Stands of ironwood, pale verde, and saguaro blanket the monument floor beneath the rugged mountain ranges, including the Silver Boll Mountains. Ragged Top Mountain is a biological and geological crown jewel amid the alepositional plains in the monument. The monument presents a quintessential view of the Sohoran Desert with ancient ]%umo and cactus forests. The geologic and topographic variability of the monument contributes to the aroa's high biological diversity. Ironwoods, which can live in excess of 800 years, generate a chain of influ- ences on associated understory plants, affecting their dispersal, germina- tion, establishment, and rates of growth. Ironwood is the dominant nurse plant in this r%ion, and the Silver Boll Mountains support the highest don- sity of ironwood trees recorded in the Sonoran Desert. Ironwood trees pro- vide, 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 coreus. 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 abun- dant rock art sites and other archeological objects of scientific interest. Hu- mans 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 list- ed 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 deco- rated ceramics, and worked shell from the Gulf of California. The area also contains the remnants of the Mission Santa Ana, the last mission con- structed in Pimeria Alta. Section 2 of the Act of June 8, 1906 (34 Stat. 225, \1776 U.S.C. 43\177), author- izes the President, in his discretion, to declare by public proclamation his- toric landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest that are situated upon the lands owned or con- trolled 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 107

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