Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 114 Part 6.djvu/232

 114 STAT. 3288 PROCLAMATION 7295—APR. 15, 2000 hawk, peregrine falcon, spotted owl, and a number of rare amphibians. The giant sequoias themselves are the only known trees large enough to provide nesting cavities for the California condor, which otherwise must nest on cliff faces. In fact, the last pair of condors breeding in the wild was discovered in a giant sequoia that is part of the new monument. The monument's giant sequoia ecosystem remains available for the return and study of condors. The physiography and geology of the monument have been shaped by millions of years of intensive uplift, erosion, volcanism, and glaciation. The monument is dominated by granitic rocks, most noticeable as domes and spires in areas such as the Needles. The magnificent Kem Canyon forms the eastern boundary of the monument's southern unit. The canyon follows an ancient fault, fonning the only major northsouth river drainage in the Sierra Nevada. Remnants of volcanism are expressed as hot springs and soda springs in some drainages. Particularly in the northern unit of the monument, limestone outcrops, remnants of an ancient seabed, are noted for their caves. Subfossil vegetation entombed within ancient woodrat middens in these caves has provided the only direct evidence of where giant sequoias grew during the Pleistocene Era, and documents substantial vegetation changes over the last 50,000 or more years. Vertebrate fossils also have been found within the middens. Other paleontological resomties are found in meadow sediments, which hold detailed records of the last 10 millennia of changing vegetation, fire regimes, and volcanism in the Sierra Nevada. The multi-millennial, annual- and seasonal-resolution records of past fire regimes held in giant sequoia tree-rings are unique worldwide. During the past 8,000 years. Native American peoples of the Sierra Nevada have lived by himting and fishing, gathering, and trading with other people throughout the region. Archaeological sites such as lithic scatters, food-processing sites, rock shelters, village sites, petroglyphs, and pictographs are found in the monument. These sites have the potential to shed light on the roles of prehistoric peoples, including the role they played in shaping the ecosystems on which they depended. One of the earliest recorded references to giant sequoias is found in the notes of the Walker Expedition of 1833, which described "trees of the redwood species, incredibly large...." The world became aware of giant sequoias when sections of the massive trees were transported east and displayed as curiosities for eastern audiences. Logging of giant sequoias throughout the Sierra Nevada mountain range began in 1856. Logging has continued intermittently to this day on nonfederal lands within the area of the monimient. Early entrepreneurs, seeing profit in the gigantic trees, began acquiring lands within the present monument under the Timber and Stone Act in the 1880s. Today our understanding of the history of the Hume Lake and Converse Basin areas of the moniunent is supported by a treasure trove of historical photographs and other dociunentation. These records provide a unique and unusually clear picture of more than half a century of logging that resulted in the virtual removal of most forest in some areas of the moniunent. Outstanding opportunities exist for studying forest resilience to largescale logging and the consequences of different approaches to forest restoration.

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