81 FR 59121 - Establishment of the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument
Executive Office of the President
Federal Register Volume 81, Issue 167 (August 29, 2016)
Page Range
59121-59128
FR Document
2016-20786
Federal Register, Volume 81 Issue 167 (Monday, August 29, 2016)
[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 167 (Monday, August 29, 2016)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 59121-59128]
From the Federal Register Online [www.thefederalregister.org]
[FR Doc No: 2016-20786]
Presidential Documents
Federal Register / Vol. 81 , No. 167 / Monday, August 29, 2016 /
Presidential Documents
___________________________________________________________________
Title 3--
The President
[[Page 59121]]
Proclamation 9476 of August 24, 2016
Establishment of the Katahdin Woods and Waters
National Monument
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
In north central Maine lies an area of the North Woods
known in recent years as the Katahdin Woods and Waters
Recreation Area (Katahdin Woods and Waters),
approximately 87,500 acres within a larger landscape
already conserved by public and private efforts
starting a century ago. Katahdin Woods and Waters
contains a significant piece of this extraordinary
natural and cultural landscape: the mountains, woods,
and waters east of Baxter State Park (home of Mount
Katahdin, the northern terminus of the Appalachian
Trail), where the East Branch of the Penobscot River
and its tributaries, including the Wassataquoik Stream
and the Seboeis River, run freely. Since the glaciers
retreated 12,000 years ago, these waterways and
associated resources--the scenery, geology, flora and
fauna, night skies, and more--have attracted people to
this area. Native Americans still cherish these
resources. Lumberjacks, river drivers, and timber
owners have earned their livings here. Artists,
authors, scientists, conservationists, recreationists,
and others have drawn knowledge and inspiration from
this landscape.
Katahdin Woods and Waters contains objects of
significant scientific and historic interest. For some
11,000 years, Native peoples have inhabited the area,
depending on its waterways and woods for sustenance.
They traveled during the year from the upper reaches of
the East Branch of the Penobscot River and its
tributaries to coastal destinations like Frenchman and
Penobscot Bays. Native peoples have traditionally used
the rivers as a vast transportation network, seasonally
searching for food, furs, medicines, and many other
resources. Based on the results of archeological
research performed in nearby areas, researchers believe
that much of the archeological record of this long
Native American presence in Katahdin Woods and Waters
remains to be discovered, creating significant
opportunity for scientific investigation. What is known
is that the Wabanaki people, in particular the
Penobscot Indian Nation, consider the Penobscot River
(including the East Branch watershed) a centerpiece of
their culture and spiritual values.
The first documented Euro-American exploration of the
Katahdin region dates to a 1793 survey commissioned by
the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. After Maine achieved
statehood in 1820, Major Joseph Treat, guided by John
Neptune of the Penobscot Tribe, produced the first
detailed maps of the region. The Maine Boundary
Commission authorized a survey of the new State in
1825, for which surveyor Joseph C. Norris, Sr., and his
son established the ``Monument Line,'' which runs
through Katahdin Woods and Waters and serves as the
State's east-west baseline from which township
boundaries are drawn.
By the early 19th century until the late 20th century,
logging was a way of life throughout the area, as
exemplified by the history of logging along the
Wassataquoik Stream. To access the upstream forests, a
tote road was built on the Wassataquoik's north bank
around 1841; traces of the old road can still be seen
in places. The earliest loggers felled enormous white
pines and then ``drove'' them down the tumultuous
stream. Beginning in the 1880s, after the choice pines
were gone, the loggers switched to spruce
[[Page 59122]]
long logs, and built camps, depots, and many dams on
the Wassataquoik to control its flow for the log
drives. Remnants of the Dacey and Robar Dams have been
found, and discovery of more logging remnants and
historic artifacts is likely. Log driving was
dangerous, and many men died on the river and were
buried nearby. A large fire in 1884 damaged logging
operations on the Wassataquoik, and an even larger fire
in 1903 put an end to the long log operations. Pulpwood
operations resumed in 1910 but ceased in 1915. Other
streams, like Sandy Stream, have similar logging
histories.
The East Branch of the Penobscot River and its major
tributaries served as a thoroughfare for huge log
drives headed toward Bangor. Log drives ended (based
primarily on environmental concerns) in the 1970s,
after which the timber companies relied on trucking and
a network of private roads they started to build in the
1950s.
In the 1800s, the infrastructure that developed to
support the logging industry also drew hunters,
anglers, and hikers to the area. In the 1830s, within 2
miles of one another on the eastern side of the
Penobscot East Branch, William Hunt and Hiram Dacey
established farms to serve loggers, which soon also
served recreationists, scientists, and others who
wanted to explore the Katahdin region or climb its
mountains. Just across the East Branch from the Hunt
and Dacey Farms (the latter now the site of Lunksoos
Camps) lies the entrance to the Wassataquoik Stream. In
1848, the Reverend Marcus Keep established what is
still called Keep Path, running along the Wassataquoik
to Katahdin Lake and on to Mount Katahdin. From that
time until the end of the 19th century, the favored
entryway to the Katahdin region started on the east
side of Mount Katahdin with a visit to Hunt or Dacey
Farm, then crossed the East Branch and ascended the
valley of the Wassataquoik Stream.
Henry David Thoreau--who made the ``Maine Woods''
famous through his publications--approached from the
headwaters of the East Branch to the north. With his
Penobscot guide Joe Polis and companion Edward Hoar in
1857, on his last and longest trip to the area, he
paddled past Dacey Farm with just a brief stop at Hunt
Farm. He wrote about his two nights in the Katahdin
Woods and Waters area--the first at what he named the
``Checkerberry-tea camp,'' near the oxbow just upriver
from Stair Falls, and the second on the river between
Dacey and Hunt Farms where he drank hemlock tea.
During his 1879 Maine trip on which he summited Mount
Katahdin, Theodore Roosevelt followed the route across
the East Branch and up the Wassataquoik. As Roosevelt
later recalled, he lost one of his hiking boots
crossing the Wassataquoik but, undaunted, completed the
challenging trek in moccasins. Many including Roosevelt
himself have observed that his several trips to the
Katahdin region in the late 1870s had a significant
impact on his life, as he overcame longstanding health
problems, gained strength and stamina, experienced the
wonder of nature and the desire to conserve it, and
made friends for life from the Maine Woods.
Native Mainer Percival P. Baxter, too, followed this
route on the 1920 trip that solidified his
determination to create a large park from this
landscape. Burton Howe, a Patten lumberman, organized
this trip of Maine notables, who stayed at Lunksoos
Camps before their ascent via the established route. As
a State representative, senator, and governor, Baxter
had proposed legislation to create a Mount Katahdin
park in commemoration of the State's centennial, and
the 1920 trip cemented his profound appreciation of the
landscape. Spurned by the Maine legislature, Baxter
devoted his life to acquiring 28 parcels of land,
largely from timber companies who had heavily logged
them, and donated them to the State with management
instructions and an endowment, resulting in the
establishment of Baxter State Park.
Artists and photographers have left indelible images of
their time spent in the area. In 1832, John James
Audubon canoed the East Branch and sketched natural
features for his masterpiece Birds of America. Frederic
[[Page 59123]]
Edwin Church, the preeminent landscape artist of the
Hudson River School, first visited the area in the
1850s, and in 1877 invited his landscape-painter
colleagues to join him on a well-publicized expedition
from Hunt Farm up the Wassataquoik Stream to capture
varied views of Mount Katahdin and environs. In the
early 1900s, George H. Hallowell painted and
photographed the log drives on the Wassataquoik Stream,
and Carl Sprinchorn painted logging activities on the
Seboeis River.
Geologists were among the earliest scientists to visit
the area. While surveys were done in the 1800s, in-
depth geological research and mapping of the area did
not begin until the 1950s. These mid-20th century
geologists found bedrock spanning over 150 million
years of the Paleozoic era, revealing a remarkably
complete exposure of Paleozoic rock strata with well-
preserved fossils. The lands west of the Penobscot East
Branch are dominated by volcanic and granitic rock from
the Devonian period, mostly Katahdin Granite but also
Traveler Rhyolite, a light-colored volcanic rock that
is similar in composition to granite. The oldest rock
in Katahdin Woods and Waters, a light greenish-gray
quartzite interlayered with slate from the early
Cambrian period (over 500 million years ago), can be
observed along the riverbank of the Penobscot East
Branch for over 1,000 feet at the Grand Pitch (a river
rapid). This rock is part of the Weeksboro-Lunksoos
Lake anticline, a broad upward fold of rocks originally
deposited horizontally, which is evidence of mountain-
building tectonics. The fold continues north along the
river and then turns northeast toward Shin Pond,
exposing successive bands of younger Paleozoic rock of
both volcanic and sedimentary origin on either side of
the structure.
Various formations in the area provide striking visual
evidence of marine waters in Katahdin Woods and Waters
during the geologic periods that immediately followed
the Cambrian period. For example, Owen Brook limestone,
an outcrop of calcareous bedrock west of the Penobscot
East Branch containing fossil brachiopods, is of coral
reef origin. Pillow lavas, such as those near the
summit of Lunksoos Mountain, were produced by
underwater eruptions. Haskell Rock, the 20-foot-tall
pillar in the midst of a Penobscot East Branch rapid,
is conglomerate bedrock that suggests a time of dynamic
transition from volcanic islands to an ocean with
underwater sedimentation. This conglomerate, deposited
about 450 million years ago, contains volcanic and
sedimentary stones of various sizes, and occurs in
outcrops and boulders in several locations.
The area's geology also provides prominent evidence of
large and powerful earth-changing events. During the
Paleozoic era (541 to 252 million years ago), mountain-
building events contributed to the rise of the
primordial Appalachian Mountain range and the
amalgamation of the supercontinent Pangaea. Following
the last mountain-building event, significant erosion
reshaped the topography, helping to expose the cores of
volcanoes, the Katahdin pluton, and the structure of
the previous mountain-building events. About 200
million years ago, Pangaea began splitting apart as the
Atlantic Ocean appeared and North America, Europe, and
Africa formed. Today, the International Appalachian
Trail, a long-distance hiking trail, seeks to follow
the ancestral Appalachian-Caledonian Mountains on both
sides of the Atlantic, starting at Katahdin Lake in
Baxter State Park near the northern end of the domestic
Appalachian Trail, traversing Katahdin Woods and Waters
for about 30 miles, and proceeding through Canada for
resumption across the Atlantic.
In more recent geological history, during the
approximately 2.5 million year-long Pleistocene epoch
that ended approximately 12,000 years ago, repeated
glaciations covered the region, eroding bedrock and
shaping the modern landscape. Glacial till from the
most recent glaciations underlies much of the area's
soil, moraines occur in several locations, and glacial
erratics are common. Prominent eskers--long, snaking
ridges of sand and gravel deposited by glacial
meltwater--occur along most of the Penobscot East
Branch and the Wassataquoik Stream. Glacial landforms,
glacial scoured
[[Page 59124]]
bedrock, and the lake sediments in the area, deposited
only since the retreat of the last glaciers, record a
history of intense climate change that gave rise to the
modern topography of the area.
This post-glacial topography is studded with attractive
small mountains, including some like Deasey, Lunksoos,
and Barnard, that offer spectacular views of Mount
Katahdin. Katahdin Woods and Waters abuts much of
Baxter State Park's eastern boundary, extending the
conservation landscape through shared mountains,
streams, corridors for plants and animals, and other
natural systems.
Among the defining natural features of Katahdin Woods
and Waters is the East Branch of the Penobscot River
system, including its major tributaries, the Seboeis
River and the Wassataquoik Stream, and many smaller
tributaries. Known as one of the least developed
watersheds in the northeastern United States, the
Penobscot East Branch River system has a stunning
concentration of hydrological features in addition to
its significant geology and ecology. From the northern
boundary of Katahdin Woods and Waters, the main stem of
the East Branch drops over 200 feet in about 10 miles
through a series of rapids and waterfalls--including
Stair Falls, Haskell Rock Pitch, Pond Pitch, Grand
Pitch, the Hulling Machine, and Bowlin Falls.
After Bowlin Brook, the main stem declines more gently
south toward Whetstone Falls and below, embroidered
with many side channels and associated floodplain
forests and open streamshores. Of the two major
tributaries, the Seboeis River flows in from the east,
and the Wassataquoik Stream from the west, the latter
dropping over 500 feet in its approximately 14-mile
wild run from the border of Baxter State Park to its
confluence with the Penobscot East Branch main stem.
The extraordinary significance of the Penobscot East
Branch River system has long been recognized. A 1977
Department of the Interior study determined that the
East Branch of the Penobscot River, including the
Wassataquoik Stream, qualifies for inclusion in the
National Wild and Scenic Rivers System based on its
outstandingly remarkable values, and a 1982 Federal-
State study of rivers in Maine determined that the
Penobscot East Branch River System, including both the
Wassataquoik Stream and the Seboeis River, ranks in the
highest category of natural and recreational rivers and
possesses nationally significant resource values.
In recent years, a multi-party public-private project
has taken steps to reconnect the Penobscot River with
the sea through the removal and retrofitting of
downstream dams. This river restoration will likely
further enhance the integrity of the Penobscot East
Branch river system, and provide opportunities for
scientific study of the effects of the restoration on
upstream areas within Katahdin Woods and Waters. It
will also allow federally endangered Atlantic salmon to
return to the upper reaches of the river known in the
Penobscot language as ``Wassetegweweck,'' or ``the
place where they spear fish.'' The return of ocean-run
Atlantic salmon to this watershed would complement the
exceptional native brook trout fishery for which
Katahdin Woods and Waters is known today.
Katahdin Woods and Waters possesses significant
biodiversity. Spanning three ecoregions, it displays
the transition between northern boreal and southern
broadleaf deciduous forests, providing a unique and
important opportunity for scientific investigation of
the effects of climate change across ecotones. The
forests include mixed hardwoods like sugar maple,
beech, and yellow birch; mixed forests with hardwoods,
hemlock, and white pine; and spruce-fir forests with
balsam fir, red spruce, and birches. In wetland areas,
black spruce, white spruce, red maple, and tamarack
dominate.
Although significant portions of the area have been
logged in recent years, the regenerating forests retain
connectivity and provide significant biodiversity among
plant and animal communities, enhancing their
ecological resilience. With the complex matrix of
microclimates represented, the area likely contains the
attributes needed to sustain natural ecological
function in the
[[Page 59125]]
face of climate change, and provide natural strongholds
for species into the future. These forests also afford
connections and scientific comparisons with the forests
on adjacent State land, including Baxter State Park,
which was logged heavily before its parcel-by-parcel
purchase by former Governor Percival Baxter between
1931 and 1963.
Of particular scientific significance are the number
and quality of small and medium-sized patch ecosystems
throughout the area, tending to occur in less common
topography that is often relatively remote or
inaccessible. Hilltops and barrens often protect rare
flora and fauna, such as the blueberry-lichen barren
and associated spruce-heath barren found between Robar
and Eastern Brooks, and the three-toothed cinquefoil-
blueberry low summit bald atop Lunksoos Mountain, where
rattlesnake hawkweed can be found. Cliffs and steep
slopes, like those present along the ridge from Deasey
Mountain to Little Spring Brook Mountain and on the
eastern sides of Billfish and Traveler Mountains,
harbor exemplary rock outcrop ecosystems that often
include flora of special interest, such as fragrant
cliff wood-fern and purple clematis. Ravines and coves
can support enriched forests like the maple-basswood-
ash community found below the eastern cliffs of
Lunksoos Mountain, with trees over 250 years old and
associated rare plants including squirrel-corn. The
Appalachian-Acadian rivershore ecosystems of the
Penobscot East Branch and its two major tributaries are
considered exemplary in Maine, with occurrences of
beautiful silver maple floodplain forest and hardwood
river terrace forest--rare and imperiled natural
communities, respectively, in the State. A nationally
significant diversity of high quality wetlands and wet
basins occurs throughout Katahdin Woods and Waters,
including smaller streams and brooks, ponds, swamps,
bogs, and fens. Patch forests of various types also
occur throughout the area, such as a red-pine woodland
forest on small hills and ridges amid the large Mud
Brook Flowage wetland in the southwestern section.
The expanse of Katahdin Woods and Waters, augmented by
its location next to other large conservation
properties including Baxter State Park and additional
State reservations, supports many wide-ranging wildlife
species including ruffed grouse, moose, black bear,
white-tailed deer, snowshoe hare, American marten,
bobcat, bald eagle, northern goshawk, and the federally
threatened Canada lynx. Seventy-eight bird species are
known to breed in the area, and many more bird species
use it. Visitation and study of the area have been
limited to date, as compared with other areas like
Baxter State Park, and many more species of birds and
other wildlife may be present.
Certain wildlife species are known to occur in specific
patch ecosystems in the area, such as the short-eared
owl in hilltops and barrens, and the silver-haired bat
and the wood turtle in floodplain forests. Mussels such
as the tidewater mucket and yellow lampmussel live in
some of the brooks and streams, and rare invertebrates
like the copper butterfly, pygmy snaketail dragonfly,
Tomah mayfly, and Roaring Brook mayfly inhabit some of
its bogs and fens.
Katahdin Woods and Waters's daytime scenery is awe-
inspiring, from the breadth of its mountain-studded
landscape, to the channels of its free-flowing streams
with their rapids, falls, and quiet water, to its
vantages for viewing the Mount Katahdin massif, the
``greatest mountain.'' The area's night skies rival
this experience, glittering with stars and planets and
occasional displays of the aurora borealis, in this
area of the country known for its dark sky.
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;
[[Page 59126]]
WHEREAS, for the purpose of establishing a national
monument to be administered by the National Park
Service, Elliotsville Plantation, Inc. (EPI), has
donated certain lands and interests in land within
Katahdin Woods and Waters to the Federal Government;
WHEREAS, the Roxanne Quimby Foundation has established
a substantial endowment with the National Park
Foundation to support the administration of a national
monument;
WHEREAS, Katahdin Woods and Waters is an exceptional
example of the rich and storied Maine Woods, enhanced
by its location in a larger protected landscape, and
thus would be a valuable addition to the Nation's
natural, historical, and cultural heritage conserved
and enjoyed in the National Park System;
WHEREAS, it is in the public interest to preserve and
protect the historic and scientific objects in Katahdin
Woods and Waters;
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 Katahdin
Woods and Waters National Monument (monument) and, for
the purpose of protecting those objects, reserve as a
part thereof all lands and interests in lands owned or
controlled by the Federal Government within the
boundaries described on the accompanying map entitled,
``Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument,'' which
is attached to and forms a part of this proclamation.
The reserved Federal lands and interests in lands
encompass approximately 87,500 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, from location, entry, and patent
under the mining laws, and from disposition under all
laws relating to mineral and geothermal leasing.
The establishment of the monument is subject to valid
existing rights, including the November 29, 2007,
``Access Agreement'' between EPI and the State of
Maine, Department of Conservation that provides for
certain public snowmobile use on specified parcels, and
certain reservations of rights for Elliotsville
Plantation, Inc., in specified parcels. If the Federal
Government acquires any lands or interests in lands not
owned or controlled by the Federal Government within
the boundaries described on the accompanying map, 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 the Interior (Secretary) shall manage
these lands through the National Park Service, pursuant
to applicable authorities and consistent with the valid
existing rights and the purposes and provisions of this
proclamation. As provided in the deeds, the Secretary
shall allow hunting by the public on the parcels east
of the East Branch of the Penobscot River in accordance
with applicable law. The Secretary may restrict hunting
in designated zones and during designated periods for
reasons of public safety, administration, or resource
protection. This proclamation will not otherwise affect
the authority of the State of Maine with respect to
hunting.
The Secretary shall prepare a management plan to
implement the purposes of this proclamation, with full
public involvement, within 3 years of the date of this
proclamation. The Secretary shall use available
authorities, as appropriate, to enter into agreements
with others to address common interests and promote
management needs and efficiencies.
[[Page 59127]]
Nothing in this proclamation shall be deemed to enlarge
or diminish the rights of any Indian tribe. The
Secretary shall, to the maximum extent permitted by law
and in consultation with Indian tribes, ensure the
protection of Indian sacred sites and cultural sites in
the monument and provide access to the sites 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).
Nothing in this proclamation shall be deemed to revoke
any existing withdrawal, reservation, or appropriation;
however, the monument shall be the dominant
reservation.
Nothing in this proclamation shall preclude the use of
existing low level Military Training Routes, consistent
with applicable Federal Aviation Administration
regulations and guidance for overflights of military
aircraft, consistent with the care and management of
the objects to be protected.
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
twenty-fourth day of August, in the year of our Lord
two thousand sixteen, and of the Independence of the
United States of America the two hundred and forty-
first.
(Presidential Sig.)
Billing code 3295-F6-P
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[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TD29AU16.000
[FR Doc. 2016-20786
Filed 8-26-16; 8:45 a.m.]
Billing code 4310-10-C