Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 93.djvu/1500

 93 STAT. 1468

PROCLAMATION 4624—DEC. 1, 1978

including submerged lands, and waters within these boundaries not owned by the United States shall be reserved as a part of the Monument upon acquisition of title thereto by the United States. All lands, including submerged lands, and all waters within the boundaries of this Monument are hereby appropriated and withdrawn from entry, location, selection, sale or other disposition under the public land laws, other than exchange. There is also reserved all water necessary to the proper care and management of those objects protected by this Monument and for the proper administration of the Monument in accordance with applicable laws. The establishment of this Monument is subject to valid existing rights, including, but not limited to, valid selection under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, as amended (43 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.), and under or confirmed in the Alaska Statehood Act (43 U.S.C. Note preceding Section 21). Nothing in this Proclamation shall be deemed to revoke any existing withdrawal, reservation or appropriation, including any withdrawal under section 17(d)(1) of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (43 U.S.C. 1616 (d)(1)); however, the National Monument shall be the dominant reservation. Nothing in this Proclamation is intended to modify or revoke the terms of the Memorandum of Understanding dated September 1, 1972, entered into between the State of Alaska and the United States as part of the negotiated settlement oi Alaska v. Morton, Civil No. A-48-72 (D. Alaska, Complaint filed April 10, 1972). 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 first day of December, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and seventy-eight, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and third. JIMMY CARTER

Proclamation 4624

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December 1, 1978

Noatak National Monument

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By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation The Noatak River basin is the largest mountain-ringed river basin in the Nation still virtually unaffected by technological human activity. This basin has been designated as a Biosphere Reserve under the United Nations' auspices, in recognition of its international importance for scientific study and research. The area includes landforms and ecological variations of scientific interest. The Grand Canyon of the Noatak River is a dissected valley 65 miles long. The area contains the riorthwesternmost fringe of boreal forest in North America, and is a transition zone and migration route for plants and animals between subarctic and arctic environments. The diversity of the flora is among the greatest anywhere in the earth's northern latitudes. The Noatak Valley area contains a rich variety of birdlife including several Asian species. The area is crossed twice a year by two-thirds of the Western Arctic caribou herd, and is prime habitat for the barren ground grizzly bear, moose, and several predator species.

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