Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 114 Part 6.djvu/182

 114 STAT. 3238 PROCLAMATION 7265^JAN. 11, 2000 elusion within the State of Arizona when it gained Statehood in 1912. Early historic sawmills provided timber that was hauled 70 miles along the Temple Trail wagon road from Mt. Trumbull down the Hurricane Cliffs to St. George, Utah. Ranch structures and corrals, fences, water tanks, and the ruins of sawmills are scattered across the monument and tell the stories of the remote family ranches and the lifestyles of early homesteaders. There are several old mining sites dating from the 1870s, showing the history of mining during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The remote and undeveloped nature of the monument protects these historical sites in nearly their original context. The monument also contains outstanding biological resources preserved by remoteness and limited travel corridors. The monument is the junction of two physiographic ecoregions: the Mojave Desert and the Colorado Plateau. Individually, these regions contain ecosystems extreme to each other, ranging from stark, arid desert to complex, dramatic higher elevation plateaus, tributaries, and rims of the Grand Canyon. The western margin of the Shivwits Plateau marks the boundary between the Sonoran/Mojave/Great Basin floristic provinces to the west and south, and the Colorado Plateau province to the northeast. This intersection of these biomes is a distinctive and remarkable feature. Riparian corridors link the plateau to the Colorado River corridor below, allowing wildlife movement and plant dispersal. The Shivwits Plateau is in an arid environment with between 14 to 18 inches of precipitation a year. Giant Mojave Yucca cacti proliferate in luidisturbed conditions throughout the monument. Diverse wildlife inhabit the monument, including a trophy-quality mule deer herd, Kaibab squirrels, and wild turkey. There are numerous threatened or endangered species as well, including the Mexican spotted owl, the California condor, the desert tortoise, and the southwestern willow flycatcher. There are also candidate or sensitive species, including the spotted bat, the western mastiff bat, the Townsend's big eared bat, and the goshawk, as well as two federally recognized sensitive rare plant species: Penstemon distans and Rosa stellata. The ponderosa pine ecosystem in the Mt. Trumbull area is a biological resource of scientific interest, which has been studied to gain important insights regarding dendroclimatic reconstruction, fire history, forest structure change, and the long-term persistence and stability of presettlement pine groups. 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 Grand Canyon- Parashant 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 Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument, for the piu-pose of protecting the objects identified

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