80 FR 41975 - Establishment of the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument
Executive Office of the President
Federal Register Volume 80, Issue 135 (July 15, 2015)
Page Range
41975-41981
FR Document
2015-17560
Federal Register, Volume 80 Issue 135 (Wednesday, July 15, 2015)
[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 135 (Wednesday, July 15, 2015)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 41975-41981]
From the Federal Register Online [www.thefederalregister.org]
[FR Doc No: 2015-17560]
Presidential Documents
Federal Register / Vol. 80, No. 135 / Wednesday, July 15, 2015 /
Presidential Documents
[[Page 41975]]
Proclamation 9298 of July 10, 2015
Establishment of the Berryessa Snow Mountain
National Monument
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
The Berryessa Snow Mountain area is the heart of
northern California's wild Inner Coast Range. Once
covered by ocean waters, it is a landscape shaped by
geologic forces of staggering power overlain with
bountiful but fragile biodiversity. Anchored in the
north by Snow Mountain's remote forests and in the
south by scenic Berryessa Mountain, this area stretches
through unbroken wildlands and important wildlife
corridors, a mosaic of native grasslands, picturesque
oak woodlands, rare wetlands, and wild chaparral.
Home to the headwaters of the Eel River, and the Stony,
Cache, and Putah creeks, Berryessa's waters are a
crucial element of this landscape and a vital link to
the water supply for millions of people. This dramatic
and diverse landscape is a biological hotspot providing
refuge for rare plant and animal species and showcasing
the human history of north-central California.
Native Americans have inhabited these lands for at
least the last 11,000 years. Many tribes, including the
Yuki, Nomlaki, Patwin, Pomo, Huchnom, Wappo, and Lake
Miwok, and Wintum all played a role in the history of
this region, one of the most linguistically diverse in
California.
The region's abundant natural resources helped to shape
these distinct cultures. Early inhabitants subsisted
upon protein-rich acorns in addition to seed and nut
crops cultivated through traditional burning practices.
Obsidian, chert, and basalt provided important source
material for tool production, such as flaked tools and
projectile points. The inhabitants also processed and
produced both shell and magnesite beads, which they
traded with other tribes.
Dense with cultural resources, the Berryessa Snow
Mountain area contains a range of ancient settlements
from mineral collection sites, and seasonal hunting and
gathering camps in the high country, to major villages
with subterranean, earth-covered round buildings in the
lowlands. In addition to trade routes winding through
the hills and mountains, the area is rich with sites
that tell the story of early Native peoples: chert
quarries where stone was gathered to make tools, task
sites where tools were re-sharpened during hunting
excursions, food sites where acorn and seeds were
ground on large grindstones, and areas with pitted
boulder petroglyphs where individuals illustrated their
life experiences. The Cache Creek Archeological
District, designated on the National Register of
Historic Places, illustrates the area's archeological
importance.
In the early 19th century, both Spanish and Mexican
expeditions explored the region, as did fur trappers
for the Hudson Bay Company. These explorers and
trappers were often just brief visitors to this
landscape, but their explorations and documentation
opened the region to further European-American
settlement by providing information about conditions,
resources, and geography. This later settlement began
during the 1840s gold rush. Farming
[[Page 41976]]
in the region was limited due to the difficult terrain
and soils, while cattle and sheep ranching were much
more profitable.
From the mid to late 1800s, many small sawmills
operated within the forests of the area. The restored
1860s-era Nye homestead cabin, the historic Prather
Mill, and remnants of associated railroad logging
operations are tangible reminders of these historic
uses. Around the turn of the 20th century, the mineral-
laden waters and hot springs of the area attracted
visitors to resorts and spas advertising their
therapeutic benefits. Remains of the foundations of the
mineral spring resorts at Bartlett Springs can be
spotted by observant visitors today.
Native populations were displaced by the European-
American settlement and development of the region in
the early to mid-1800s. Many traditional hunting and
gathering grounds were converted to grazing and logging
and new diseases brought into the area spread to the
Native people, greatly impacting the local Native
populations and pushing them off of their homelands.
Nevertheless, the region's landscape and resources
retain deep cultural significance for modern Native
communities, including roughly two dozen federally
recognized tribes.
The Berryessa Snow Mountain area tells a dynamic
geologic story. A relic of ancient times, scientists
theorize that Snow Mountain formed as an underwater
mountain during the Jurassic Period, 145-199 million
years ago. Much of the region is prone to landslides
due to weak and pervasively fractured rock, resulting
in a diverse topography, including sag ponds and
springs, with important values for wildlife and plants.
The seismically active Bartlett Springs fault zone has
remarkable features including hot springs and geologic
outliers with marine invertebrate fossils dating to the
Cretaceous Period and Cenozoic Era. The area has two
important tension-crack caves, likely also created by
landslides. These are classified as significant under
the Federal Cave Resources Protection Act of 1988 and
provide habitat for the Townsend's big-eared bat.
Rising from near sea-level in the south to over 7,000
feet in the mountainous north, and stretching across
100 miles and dozens of ecosystems, the area's species
richness is among the highest in California. This
internationally recognized biodiversity hotspot is
located at the juncture between California's Klamath,
North Coast, and Sacramento Vallejo ecoregions and
provides vital habitat and migration corridors for
diverse wildlife, including several endemic plant and
animal species.
The Berryessa Snow Mountain area is notable for its
significant concentration of serpentine soils arising
from frequent seismic activity and influence from
ancient oceans. Serpentine, California's State rock, is
formed from the clashing, subduction, and rising of
massive geologic forces, and can be found in
significant quantity in the area. These soils lack the
nutrients most plants need and often contain heavy
metals toxic to many plants, resulting in plants that
are unique and endemic to this region. Serpentine
outcrops in the area have been the subject of a great
deal of botanical, ecological, and evolutionary
research, and hold promise for future scientific
explorations. Many serpentine plants are listed as
rare, sensitive, or threatened under Federal or State
law. Examples are: the endemic bent-flowered fiddleneck
and brittlescale, the Brewer's jewelflower, Purdy's
fringed onion, musk brush, serpentine sunflower, bare
monkeyflower, Indian Valley brodiaea, Red Mountain
catchfly, and Snow Mountain buckwheat, along with
numerous other herbs such as the Lake County stonecrop,
coastal bluff morning glory, Cobb Mountain lupine,
Contra Costa goldfields, and Napa western flax. There
are also plant species that are near-endemics and
almost entirely restricted to serpentine soils, such as
MacNab cypress, leather oak, swamp larkspur, and
Purdy's fritillary.
The Berryessa Snow Mountain area is replete with wild
and unique landscapes and climatic micro-regions. These
include Cedar Roughs, an important refuge for black
bear and a 3,000-acre stand of endemic Sargent's
cypress
[[Page 41977]]
trees. Cache Creek, a California Wild and Scenic River,
provides an exceptional, intact riparian habitat and
one of the largest wintering populations of bald eagles
in the State. Remnants of the grassland prairies that
once covered much of interior California still exist at
Upper Cache Creek, where there are stands of native
grasses with creeping wild rye and meadow barley, and
some smaller relict patches of upland bunchgrass.
The 6,000-foot Goat Mountain is home to highly unusual
plant assemblages that have created one of the most
diverse butterfly regions in California. The Hale Ridge
Research Natural Area hosts an important stand of
knobcone pine. The ecological sky island of the 7,000-
foot Snow Mountain serves as important habitat to a
number of key plant and animal species.
The headwaters of the Bear Creek Watershed are a
particularly excellent example of the area's
serpentinite-based endemism and biodiversity with over
450 plant species, including a magnificent array of
wildflowers, along with cypress, manzanita, and willow.
Nearly half of California's 108 species of dragonfly
and damselfly are found here, as well as 16 reptiles
and amphibians, 6 rare insects, and 80 species of
butterflies. This area has been an important focus of
scientific studies on climate change, including studies
of range shifts and isolated populations of species
during Pleistocene changes in climate, and on post-fire
succession.
The Berryessa Snow Mountain area's wide variety of
elevations, many streams, ponds, and rivers as well as
diverse plant communities provide excellent habitat for
fish, wildlife, and amphibians. The streams and creeks
in the Berryessa Snow Mountain area have served as
centers for scientific research on hydrology and
riparian ecosystems for decades. The riparian habitat
linking the Sacramento River, Putah Creek, and Cache
Creek provides a home for native birds such as the
spotted sandpiper and the rare tricolored blackbird.
Waterways in the area harbor several native fish,
including Pacific lamprey, western brook lamprey,
rainbow trout, California roach, Sacramento pikeminnow,
speckled dace, hardhead minnow, Clear Lake hitch,
Sacramento sucker, and prickly and riffle sculpins. The
area also provides historic habitat for coastal chinook
salmon, Northern California steelhead, and California
Central Valley steelhead.
Ponds and seeps throughout the area provide rare
aquatic habitat for important plants like eelgrass
pondweed, few-flowered navarretia, marsh checkerbloom,
and Boggs Lake hedge-hyssop. This aquatic habitat is
also home to amphibious species like the foothill
yellow-legged frog, California red-legged frog,
California newt, Pacific tree frog, western toad, and
the northwestern pond turtle.
Numerous reptiles live in the Berryessa Snow Mountain
area, including the St. Helena mountain king snake,
western fence lizard, western skink, western whiptail,
alligator lizard, gopher snake, common king snake,
rubber boa, common garter snake, western terrestrial
garter snake, western aquatic garter snake, and the
northern Pacific rattlesnake.
Many large and small mammals co-exist in this diverse
landscape, such as Tule elk, bobcats, mountain lions,
black bears, mule deer, beaver, river otter, Pacific
fishers, American badgers, Humboldt martens, and the
San Joaquin pocket mouse. Most of the animal species in
the area have special State or Federal status as
sensitive, at-risk or threatened.
Raptors such as burrowing owls, prairie falcon,
peregrine falcon, northern goshawk, and bald and golden
eagles live and hunt throughout the upland areas. The
Berryessa Snow Mountain area also serves as an
important migratory corridor for neotropical birds and
is home to a plethora of bat and insect species,
including the threatened valley elderberry longhorn
beetle and the vulnerable pallid bat, western sulphur
butterfly, gray marble butterfly, Muir's hairstreak,
and Lindsay's skipper.
[[Page 41978]]
The protection of the Berryessa Snow Mountain area will
preserve its prehistoric and historic legacy and
maintain its diverse array of scientific resources,
ensuring that the prehistoric, historic, and scientific
values remain for the benefit of all Americans. Today,
the area is important for ranching and also provides
outdoor recreation opportunities, including hunting,
fishing, hiking, mountain biking, and horseback riding
to a burgeoning population center.
WHEREAS, section 320301 of title 54, United States Code
(known as the ``Antiquities Act''), 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 Federal Government to be
national monuments, and to reserve as a part thereof
parcels of land, the limits of which shall be confined
to the smallest area compatible with the proper care
and management of the objects to be protected;
WHEREAS, it is in the public interest to preserve the
objects of scientific and historic interest on the
lands of the Berryessa Snow Mountain area;
NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the
United States of America, by the authority vested in me
by section 320301 of title 54, United States Code,
hereby proclaim the objects identified above that are
situated upon lands and interests in lands owned or
controlled by the Federal Government to be the
Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument (monument)
and, for the purpose of protecting those objects,
reserve as part thereof all lands and interests in
lands owned or controlled by the Federal Government
within the boundaries described on the accompanying
map, which is attached to and forms a part of this
proclamation. These reserved Federal lands and
interests in lands encompass approximately 330,780
acres. The boundaries described on the accompanying map
are confined to 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 described on the accompanying map are hereby
appropriated and withdrawn from all forms of entry,
location, selection, sale, or other disposition under
the public land laws or laws applicable to the U.S.
Forest Service, 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 facilitates the remediation,
monitoring, or reclamation of historic mining
operations under applicable law or otherwise furthers
the protective purposes of the monument.
The establishment of the monument is subject to valid
existing rights. If the Federal Government acquires any
lands or interests in lands not owned or controlled by
the Federal Government within the boundaries of the
monument, such lands and interests in lands shall be
reserved as a part of the monument, and objects
identified above that are situated upon those lands and
interests in lands shall be part of the monument, upon
acquisition of ownership or control by the Federal
Government.
The Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of the
Interior (Secretaries) shall manage the monument
through the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and the Bureau
of Land Management (BLM), pursuant to their respective
applicable legal authorities, to implement the purposes
of this proclamation. The USFS shall manage that
portion of the monument within the boundaries of the
National Forest System (NFS), and BLM shall manage the
remainder of the monument. The lands administered by
USFS shall be managed as part of the Mendocino National
Forest. The lands administered by BLM shall be managed
as a unit of the National Landscape Conservation
System, pursuant to applicable legal authorities.
For purposes of protecting and restoring the objects
identified above, the Secretaries shall jointly prepare
a management plan for the monument and shall promulgate
such regulations for its management as deemed
appropriate.
[[Page 41979]]
In developing any management plans and any management
rules and regulations governing NFS lands within the
monument, the Secretary of Agriculture, through USFS,
shall consult with the Secretary of the Interior
through BLM. The Secretaries shall provide for public
involvement in the development of the management plan
including, but not limited to, consultation with
tribal, State, and local governments. In the
development and implementation of the management plan,
the Secretaries shall maximize opportunities, pursuant
to applicable legal authorities, for shared resources,
operational efficiency, and cooperation.
In managing the monument, the Secretaries may authorize
activities or uses related to remediation, monitoring,
and reclamation of mining sites and to provide for the
beneficial public use of water associated with
reclamation of such sites, consistent with the care and
management of the objects identified above.
Except for emergency or authorized administrative
purposes, motorized and mechanized vehicle use in the
monument shall be allowed only on roads and trails
designated for such use, consistent with the care and
management of the objects identified above.
Nothing in this proclamation shall be deemed to enlarge
or diminish the rights of any Indian tribe. The
Secretaries shall, to the maximum extent permitted by
law and in consultation with Indian tribes, ensure the
protection of Indian sacred sites and traditional
cultural properties in the monument and provide access
by members of Indian tribes for traditional cultural
and customary uses, consistent with the American Indian
Religious Freedom Act (42 U.S.C. 1996) and Executive
Order 13007 of May 24, 1996 (Indian Sacred Sites).
Laws, regulations, and policies followed by USFS or BLM
in issuing and administering grazing permits or leases
on lands under their jurisdiction shall continue to
apply with regard to the lands in the monument,
consistent with the care and management of the objects
identified above.
Nothing in this proclamation shall be construed to
alter the valid existing water rights of any party,
including the United States. This proclamation does not
reserve water as a matter of Federal law.
Nothing in this proclamation shall preclude low level
overflights of military aircraft, the designation of
new units of special use airspace, the use or
establishment of military flight training routes over
the lands reserved by this proclamation, or related
military uses, consistent with the care and management
of the objects to be protected.
Nothing in this proclamation shall be deemed to enlarge
or diminish the jurisdiction of the State of
California, including its jurisdiction and authority
with respect to fish and wildlife management.
Nothing in this proclamation shall be construed to
alter the authority or responsibility of any party with
respect to emergency response activities within the
monument, including wildland fire response.
Nothing in this proclamation shall be deemed to revoke
any existing withdrawal, reservation, or appropriation;
however, the monument shall be the dominant
reservation.
Warning is hereby given to all unauthorized persons not
to appropriate, injure, destroy, or remove any feature
of the monument and not to locate or settle upon any of
the lands thereof.
[[Page 41980]]
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
tenth day of July, in the year of our Lord two thousand
fifteen, and of the Independence of the United States
of America the two hundred and fortieth.
(Presidential Sig.)
Billing code 3295-F5-P
[[Page 41981]]
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TD15JY15.002
[FR Doc. 2015-17560
Filed 7-14-15; 11:15 am]
Billing code 4310-10-C