82 FR 1139 - Establishment of the Bears Ears National Monument
Executive Office of the President
Federal Register Volume 82, Issue 3 (January 5, 2017)
Page Range
1139-1147
FR Document
2017-00038
Federal Register, Volume 82 Issue 3 (Thursday, January 5, 2017)
[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 3 (Thursday, January 5, 2017)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 1139-1147]
From the Federal Register Online [www.thefederalregister.org]
[FR Doc No: 2017-00038]
Presidential Documents
Federal Register / Vol. 82, No. 3 / Thursday, January 5, 2017 /
Presidential Documents
___________________________________________________________________
Title 3--
The President
[[Page 1139]]
Proclamation 9558 of December 28, 2016
Establishment of the Bears Ears National Monument
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
Rising from the center of the southeastern Utah
landscape and visible from every direction are twin
buttes so distinctive that in each of the native
languages of the region their name is the same:
Hoon'Naqvut, Shash J[aacute]a, Kwiyagatu Nukavachi,
Ansh An Lashokdiwe, or ``Bears Ears.'' For hundreds of
generations, native peoples lived in the surrounding
deep sandstone canyons, desert mesas, and meadow
mountaintops, which constitute one of the densest and
most significant cultural landscapes in the United
States. Abundant rock art, ancient cliff dwellings,
ceremonial sites, and countless other artifacts provide
an extraordinary archaeological and cultural record
that is important to us all, but most notably the land
is profoundly sacred to many Native American tribes,
including the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Navajo Nation,
Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah Ouray, Hopi Nation, and
Zuni Tribe.
The area's human history is as vibrant and diverse as
the ruggedly beautiful landscape. From the earliest
occupation, native peoples left traces of their
presence. Clovis people hunted among the cliffs and
canyons of Cedar Mesa as early as 13,000 years ago,
leaving behind tools and projectile points in places
like the Lime Ridge Clovis Site, one of the oldest
known archaeological sites in Utah. Archaeologists
believe that these early people hunted mammoths, ground
sloths, and other now-extinct megafauna, a narrative
echoed by native creation stories. Hunters and
gatherers continued to live in this region in the
Archaic Period, with sites dating as far back as 8,500
years ago.
Ancestral Puebloans followed, beginning to occupy the
area at least 2,500 years ago, leaving behind items
from their daily life such as baskets, pottery, and
weapons. These early farmers of Basketmaker II and III
and builders of Pueblo I, II, and III left their marks
on the land. The remains of single family dwellings,
granaries, kivas, towers, and large villages and roads
linking them together reveal a complex cultural
history. ``Moki steps,'' hand and toe holds carved into
steep canyon walls by the Ancestral Puebloans,
illustrate the early people's ingenuity and
perseverance and are still used today to access
dwellings along cliff walls. Other, distinct cultures
have thrived here as well--the Fremont People, Numic-
and Athabaskan-speaking hunter-gatherers, and Utes and
Navajos. Resources such as the Doll House Ruin in Dark
Canyon Wilderness Area and the Moon House Ruin on Cedar
Mesa allow visitors to marvel at artistry and
architecture that have withstood thousands of seasons
in this harsh climate.
The landscape is a milieu of the accessible and
observable together with the inaccessible and hidden.
The area's petroglyphs and pictographs capture the
imagination with images dating back at least 5,000
years and spanning a range of styles and traditions.
From life-size ghostlike figures that defy
categorization, to the more literal depictions of
bighorn sheep, birds, and lizards, these drawings
enable us to feel the humanity of these ancient
artists. The Indian Creek area contains spectacular
rock art, including hundreds of petroglyphs at
Newspaper Rock. Visitors to Bears Ears can also
discover more recent rock art left by the Ute, Navajo,
and Paiute peoples.
[[Page 1140]]
It is also the less visible sites, however--those that
supported the food gathering, subsistence and ceremony
of daily life--that tell the story of the people who
lived here. Historic remnants of Native American sheep-
herding and farming are scattered throughout the area,
and pottery and Navajo hogans record the lifeways of
native peoples in the 19th and 20th centuries.
For thousands of years, humans have occupied and
stewarded this land. With respect to most of these
people, their contribution to the historical record is
unknown, but some have played a more public role. Famed
Navajo headman K'aay[eacute]lii was born around 1800
near the twin Bears Ears buttes. His band used the
area's remote canyons to elude capture by the U.S. Army
and avoid the fate that befell many other Navajo bands:
surrender, the Long Walk, and forced relocation to
Bosque Redondo. Another renowned 19th century Navajo
leader, ``Hastiin Ch'ihaajin'' Manuelito, was also born
near the Bears Ears.
The area's cultural importance to Native American
tribes continues to this day. As they have for
generations, these tribes and their members come here
for ceremonies and to visit sacred sites. Throughout
the region, many landscape features, such as Comb
Ridge, the San Juan River, and Cedar Mesa, are closely
tied to native stories of creation, danger, protection,
and healing. The towering spires in the Valley of the
Gods are sacred to the Navajo, representing ancient
Navajo warriors frozen in stone. Traditions of hunting,
fishing, gathering, and wood cutting are still
practiced by tribal members, as is collection of
medicinal and ceremonial plants, edible herbs, and
materials for crafting items like baskets and footwear.
The traditional ecological knowledge amassed by the
Native Americans whose ancestors inhabited this region,
passed down from generation to generation, offers
critical insight into the historic and scientific
significance of the area. Such knowledge is, itself, a
resource to be protected and used in understanding and
managing this landscape sustainably for generations to
come.
Euro-Americans first explored the Bears Ears area
during the 18th century, and Mormon settlers followed
in the late 19th century. The San Juan Mission
expedition traversed this rugged country in 1880 on
their journey to establish a new settlement in what is
now Bluff, Utah. To ease the passage of wagons over the
slick rock slopes and through the canyonlands, the
settlers smoothed sections of the rock surface and
constructed dugways and other features still visible
along their route, known as the Hole-in-the-Rock Trail.
Cabins, corrals, trails, and carved inscriptions in the
rock reveal the lives of ranchers, prospectors, and
early archaeologists. Cattle rustlers and other outlaws
created a convoluted trail network known as the Outlaw
Trail, said to be used by Butch Cassidy and the
Sundance Kid. These outlaws took advantage of the
area's network of canyons, including the aptly-named
Hideout Canyon, to avoid detection.
The area's stunning geology, from sharp pinnacles to
broad mesas, labyrinthine canyons to solitary hoodoos,
and verdant hanging gardens to bare stone arches and
natural bridges, provides vital insights to geologists.
In the east, the Abajo Mountains tower, reaching
elevations of more than 11,000 feet. A long geologic
history is documented in the colorful rock layers
visible in the area's canyons.
For long periods over 300 million years ago, these
lands were inundated by tropical seas and hosted
thriving coral reefs. These seas infused the area's
black rock shale with salts as they receded. Later, the
lands were bucked upwards multiple times by the
Monument Upwarp, and near-volcanoes punched up through
the rock, leaving their marks on the landscape without
reaching the surface. In the sandstone of Cedar Mesa,
fossil evidence has revealed large, mammal-like
reptiles that burrowed into the sand to survive the
blistering heat of the end of the Permian Period, when
the region was dominated by a seaside desert. Later, in
the Late Triassic Period more than 200 million years
ago, seasonal monsoons flooded an ancient river system
that fed a vast desert here.
[[Page 1141]]
The paleontological resources in the Bears Ears area
are among the richest and most significant in the
United States, and protection of this area will provide
important opportunities for further archaeological and
paleontological study. Many sites, such as Arch Canyon,
are teeming with fossils, and research conducted in the
Bears Ears area is revealing new insights into the
transition of vertebrate life from reptiles to mammals
and from sea to land. Numerous ray-finned fish fossils
from the Permian Period have been discovered, along
with other late Paleozoic Era fossils, including giant
amphibians, synapsid reptiles, and important plant
fossils. Fossilized traces of marine and aquatic
creatures such as clams, crayfish, fish, and aquatic
reptiles have been found in Indian Creek's Chinle
Formation, dating to the Triassic Period, and phytosaur
and dinosaur fossils from the same period have been
found along Comb Ridge. Paleontologists have identified
new species of plant-eating crocodile-like reptiles and
mass graves of lumbering sauropods, along with
metoposaurus, crocodiles, and other dinosaur fossils.
Fossilized trackways of early tetrapods can be seen in
the Valley of the Gods and in Indian Creek, where
paleontologists have also discovered exceptional
examples of fossilized ferns, horsetails, and cycads.
The Chinle Formation and the Wingate, Kayenta, and
Navajo Formations above it provide one of the best
continuous rock records of the Triassic-Jurassic
transition in the world, crucial to understanding how
dinosaurs dominated terrestrial ecosystems and how our
mammalian ancestors evolved. In Pleistocene Epoch
sediments, scientists have found traces of mammoths,
short-faced bears, ground sloths, primates, and camels.
From earth to sky, the region is unsurpassed in
wonders. The star-filled nights and natural quiet of
the Bears Ears area transport visitors to an earlier
eon. Against an absolutely black night sky, our galaxy
and others more distant leap into view. As one of the
most intact and least roaded areas in the contiguous
United States, Bears Ears has that rare and arresting
quality of deafening silence.
Communities have depended on the resources of the
region for hundreds of generations. Understanding the
important role of the green highlands in providing
habitat for subsistence plants and animals, as well as
capturing and filtering water from passing storms, the
Navajo refer to such places as ``Nahodishgish,'' or
places to be left alone. Local communities seeking to
protect the mountains for their watershed values have
long recognized the importance of the Bears Ears'
headwaters. Wildfires, both natural and human-set, have
shaped and maintained forests and grasslands of this
area for millennia. Ranchers have relied on the forests
and grasslands of the region for ages, and hunters come
from across the globe for a chance at a bull elk or
other big game. Today, ecological restoration through
the careful use of wildfire and management of grazing
and timber is working to restore and maintain the
health of these vital watersheds and grasslands.
The diversity of the soils and microenvironments in the
Bears Ears area provide habitat for a wide variety of
vegetation. The highest elevations, in the Elk Ridge
area of the Manti-La Sal National Forest, contain
pockets of ancient Engelmann spruce, ponderosa pine,
aspen, and subalpine fir. Mesa tops include pinyon-
juniper woodlands along with big sagebrush, low sage,
blackbrush, rabbitbrush, bitterbrush, four-wing
saltbush, shadscale, winterfat, Utah serviceberry,
western chokecherry, hackberry, barberry, cliff rose,
and greasewood. Canyons contain diverse vegetation
ranging from yucca and cacti such as prickly pear,
claret cup, and Whipple's fishhook to mountain
mahogany, ponderosa pine, alder, sagebrush, birch,
dogwood, and Gambel's oak, along with occasional stands
of aspen. Grasses and herbaceous species such as
bluegrass, bluestem, giant ryegrass, ricegrass, needle
and thread, yarrow, common mallow, balsamroot, low
larkspur, horsetail, and peppergrass also grow here, as
well as pinnate spring parsley, Navajo penstemon,
Canyonlands lomatium, and the Abajo daisy.
Tucked into winding canyons are vibrant riparian
communities characterized by Fremont cottonwood,
western sandbar willow, yellow willow, and box
[[Page 1142]]
elder. Numerous seeps provide year-round water and
support delicate hanging gardens, moisture-loving
plants, and relict species such as Douglas fir. A few
populations of the rare Kachina daisy, endemic to the
Colorado Plateau, hide in shaded seeps and alcoves of
the area's canyons. A genetically distinct population
of Kachina daisy was also found on Elk Ridge. The
alcove columbine and cave primrose, also regionally
endemic, grow in seeps and hanging gardens in the Bears
Ears landscape. Wildflowers such as beardtongue,
evening primrose, aster, Indian paintbrush, yellow and
purple beeflower, straight bladderpod, Durango tumble
mustard, scarlet gilia, globe mallow, sand verbena,
sego lily, cliffrose, sacred datura, monkey flower,
sunflower, prince's plume, hedgehog cactus, and
columbine, bring bursts of color to the landscape.
The diverse vegetation and topography of the Bears Ears
area, in turn, support a variety of wildlife species.
Mule deer and elk range on the mesas and near canyon
heads, which provide crucial habitat for both species.
The Cedar Mesa landscape is home to bighorn sheep which
were once abundant but still live in Indian Creek, and
in the canyons north of the San Juan River. Small
mammals such as desert cottontail, black-tailed
jackrabbit, prairie dog, Botta's pocket gopher, white-
tailed antelope squirrel, Colorado chipmunk, canyon
mouse, deer mouse, pinyon mouse, and desert woodrat, as
well as Utah's only population of Abert's tassel-eared
squirrels, find shelter and sustenance in the
landscape's canyons and uplands. Rare shrews, including
a variant of Merriam's shrew and the dwarf shrew can be
found in this area.
Carnivores, including badger, coyote, striped skunk,
ringtail, gray fox, bobcat, and the occasional mountain
lion, all hunt here, while porcupines use their sharp
quills and climbing abilities to escape these
predators. Oral histories from the Ute describe the
historic presence of bison, antelope, and abundant
bighorn sheep, which are also depicted in ancient rock
art. Black bear pass through the area but are rarely
seen, though they are common in the oral histories and
legends of this region, including those of the Navajo.
Consistent sources of water in a dry landscape draw
diverse wildlife species to the area's riparian
habitats, including an array of amphibian species such
as tiger salamander, red-spotted toad, Woodhouse's
toad, canyon tree frog, Great Basin spadefoot, and
northern leopard frog. Even the most sharp-eyed
visitors probably will not catch a glimpse of the
secretive Utah night lizard. Other reptiles in the area
include the sagebrush lizard, eastern fence lizard,
tree lizard, side-blotched lizard, plateau striped
whiptail, western rattlesnake, night snake, striped
whipsnake, and gopher snake.
Raptors such as the golden eagle, peregrine falcon,
bald eagle, northern harrier, northern goshawk, red-
tailed hawk, ferruginous hawk, American kestrel,
flammulated owl, and great horned owl hunt their prey
on the mesa tops with deadly speed and accuracy. The
largest contiguous critical habitat for the threatened
Mexican spotted owl is on the Manti-La Sal National
Forest. Other bird species found in the area include
Merriam's turkey, Williamson's sapsucker, common
nighthawk, white-throated swift, ash-throated
flycatcher, violet-green swallow, cliff swallow,
mourning dove, pinyon jay, sagebrush sparrow, canyon
towhee, rock wren, sage thrasher, and the endangered
southwestern willow flycatcher.
As the skies darken in the evenings, visitors may catch
a glimpse of some the area's at least 15 species of
bats, including the big free-tailed bat, pallid bat,
Townsend's big-eared bat, spotted bat, and silver-
haired bat. Tinajas, rock depressions filled with
rainwater, provide habitat for many specialized aquatic
species, including pothole beetles and freshwater
shrimp. Eucosma navajoensis, an endemic moth that has
only been described near Valley of the Gods, is unique
to this area.
Protection of the Bears Ears area will preserve its
cultural, prehistoric, and historic legacy and maintain
its diverse array of natural and scientific resources,
ensuring that the prehistoric, historic, and scientific
values of this
[[Page 1143]]
area remain for the benefit of all Americans. The Bears
Ears area has been proposed for protection by members
of Congress, Secretaries of the Interior, State and
tribal leaders, and local conservationists for at least
80 years. The area contains numerous objects of
historic and of scientific interest, and it provides
world class outdoor recreation opportunities, including
rock climbing, hunting, hiking, backpacking,
canyoneering, whitewater rafting, mountain biking, and
horseback riding. Because visitors travel from near and
far, these lands support a growing travel and tourism
sector that is a source of economic opportunity for the
region.
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
Bears Ears lands;
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 Bears
Ears 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
1.35 million 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 of the monument 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
furthers the protective purposes of the monument.
The establishment of the monument is subject to valid
existing rights, including valid existing water rights.
If the Federal Government acquires ownership or control
of any lands or interests in lands that it did not
previously own or control 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 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 the BLM shall manage
the remainder of the monument. The lands administered
by the USFS shall be managed as part of the Manti-La
Sal National Forest. The lands administered by the 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
[[Page 1144]]
shall promulgate such regulations for its management as
they deem appropriate. The Secretaries, through the
USFS and the BLM, shall consult with other Federal land
management agencies in the local area, including the
National Park Service, in developing the management
plan. In promulgating any management rules and
regulations governing the NFS lands within the monument
and developing the management plan, the Secretary of
Agriculture, through the USFS, shall consult with the
Secretary of the Interior through the BLM. The
Secretaries shall provide for maximum public
involvement in the development of that plan including,
but not limited to, consultation with federally
recognized tribes and 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.
The Secretaries, through the BLM and USFS, shall
establish an advisory committee under the Federal
Advisory Committee Act (5 U.S.C. App.) to provide
information and advice regarding the development of the
management plan and, as appropriate, management of the
monument. This advisory committee shall consist of a
fair and balanced representation of interested
stakeholders, including State and local governments,
tribes, recreational users, local business owners, and
private landowners.
In recognition of the importance of tribal
participation to the care and management of the objects
identified above, and to ensure that management
decisions affecting the monument reflect tribal
expertise and traditional and historical knowledge, a
Bears Ears Commission (Commission) is hereby
established to provide guidance and recommendations on
the development and implementation of management plans
and on management of the monument. The Commission shall
consist of one elected officer each from the Hopi
Nation, Navajo Nation, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Ute
Indian Tribe of the Uintah Ouray, and Zuni Tribe,
designated by the officers' respective tribes. The
Commission may adopt such procedures as it deems
necessary to govern its activities, so that it may
effectively partner with the Federal agencies by making
continuing contributions to inform decisions regarding
the management of the monument.
The Secretaries shall meaningfully engage the
Commission or, should the Commission no longer exist,
the tribal governments through some other entity
composed of elected tribal government officers
(comparable entity), in the development of the
management plan and to inform subsequent management of
the monument. To that end, in developing or revising
the management plan, the Secretaries shall carefully
and fully consider integrating the traditional and
historical knowledge and special expertise of the
Commission or comparable entity. If the Secretaries
decide not to incorporate specific recommendations
submitted to them in writing by the Commission or
comparable entity, they will provide the Commission or
comparable entity with a written explanation of their
reasoning. The management plan shall also set forth
parameters for continued meaningful engagement with the
Commission or comparable entity in implementation of
the management plan.
To further the protective purposes of the monument, the
Secretary of the Interior shall explore entering into a
memorandum of understanding with the State that would
set forth terms, pursuant to applicable laws and
regulations, for an exchange of land currently owned by
the State of Utah and administered by the Utah School
and Institutional Trust Lands Administration within the
boundary of the monument for land of approximately
equal value managed by the BLM outside the boundary of
the monument. The Secretary of the Interior shall
report to the President by January 19, 2017, regarding
the potential for such an exchange.
Nothing in this proclamation shall be construed to
interfere with the operation or maintenance, or the
replacement or modification within the current
authorization boundary, of existing utility, pipeline,
or telecommunications
[[Page 1145]]
facilities located within the monument in a manner
consistent with the care and management of the objects
identified above.
Nothing in this proclamation shall be deemed to enlarge
or diminish the rights or jurisdiction 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), including collection of
medicines, berries and other vegetation, forest
products, and firewood for personal noncommercial use
in a manner consistent with the care and management of
the objects identified above.
For purposes of protecting and restoring the objects
identified above, the Secretaries shall prepare a
transportation plan that designates the roads and
trails where motorized and non-motorized mechanized
vehicle use will be allowed. Except for emergency or
authorized administrative purposes, motorized and non-
motorized mechanized vehicle use shall be allowed only
on roads and trails designated for such use, consistent
with the care and management of such objects. Any
additional roads or trails designated for motorized
vehicle use must be for the purposes of public safety
or protection of such objects.
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 to
ensure the ongoing consistency with the care and
management of the objects identified above.
Nothing in this proclamation shall be deemed to enlarge
or diminish the jurisdiction of the State of Utah,
including its jurisdiction and authority with respect
to fish and wildlife management.
Nothing in this proclamation shall preclude low-level
overflights of military aircraft, the designation of
new units of special use airspace, or the use or
establishment of military flight training routes over
the lands reserved by this proclamation consistent with
the care and management of the objects identified
above.
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 1146]]
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
twenty-eighth day of December, 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-F7-P
[[Page 1147]]
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TD05JA17.319
[FR Doc. 2017-00038
Filed 1-4-17; 8:45 am]
Billing code 4310-10-C