� Proclamation 7264-Establishment of the California Coastal National

Monument

 

 

� January 11, 2000

 

 

� By the President of the United States of America

 

 

� Proclamation

 

 

� The islands, rocks, and pinnacles of the California Coastal

National Monument overwhelm the viewer, as white-capped waves crash

into the vertical cliffs or deeply crevassed surge channels and

frothy water empties back into the ocean. Amidst that beauty lies

irreplaceable scientific values vital to protecting the fragile

ecosystems of the California coastline. At land's end, the islands,

rocks, exposed reefs, and pinnacles off the coast above mean high

tide provide havens for significant populations of sea mammals and

birds. They are part of a narrow and important flight lane in the

Pacific Flyway, providing essential habitat for feeding, perching,

nesting, and shelter.

 

 

� The California Coastal National Monument is a biological treasure.

The thousands of islands, rocks, exposed reefs, and pinnacles are

part of the nearshore ocean zone that begins just off shore and ends

at the boundary between the continental shelf and continental slope.

Waters of this zone are rich in nutrients from upwelling currents

and freshwater inflows, supporting a rich array of habitats and

organisms. Productive oceanographic factors, such as major ocean

currents, stimulate critical biological productivity and diversity

in both nearshore and offshore ocean waters.

 

 

� The monument contains many geologic formations that provide unique

habitat for biota. Wave action exerts a strong influence on habitat

distribution within the monument. Beaches occur where wave action is

light, boulder fields occur in areas of greater wave activity, and

rocky outcroppings occur where wave action is greatest. The pounding

surf within boulder fields and rocky shores often creates small, but

important, habitats known as tidepools, which support creatures

uniquely adapted for survival under such extreme physical

conditions. Although shoreline habitats may appear distinct from

those off shore, they are dependent upon each other, with vital and

dynamic exchange of nutrients and organisms being essential to

maintaining their healthy ecosystems. As part of California's

nearshore ocean zone, the monument is rich in biodiversity and holds

many species of scientific interest that can be particularly

sensitive to disturbance.

 

 

� The monument's vegetative character varies greatly. Larger rocks

and islands contain diverse growth. Dudleya, Atriplex-BaeriaRumex,

mixed grass-herb, Polypodium, Distichlis, ice plant,

Synthyris-Poppy, Eymus, Poa-Baeria, chapparal, and wetlands

vegetation are all present. Larger rocks and islands contain a

diverse blend of the vegetation types.

 

 

� The monument provides feeding and nesting habitat for an estimated

200,000 breeding seabirds. Development on the mainland has forced

seabirds that once fed and nested in the shoreline ecosystem to

retreat to the areas protected by the monument. Pelagic seabird

species inhabit salt or brackish water environments for at least

part of their annual cycle and breed on offshore islands and rocks.

Gulls, the endangered California least tern, the threatened brown

pelican, and the -snowy plover, among countless others, all feed on

the vegetation and establish their nests in the monument. Both bald

eagles and peregrine falcons are found within the monument.

 

 

� The monument also provides forage and breeding habitat for several

mammal species. Pinnipeds are abundant, including the threatened

southern sea otter and the Guadalupe fur seal. The monument contains

important shelter for male California sea lions in the winter and

breeding rookeries for threatened northern (Steller) sea lions in

the spring.

 

 

� Section 2 of the Act of June 8, 1906 (34 Stat. 225, 16 U.S.C. 431)

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

Government of the United States to be national monuments, and to

reserve as a part thereof parcels of land, the limits of which in

all cases shall be confined to the smallest area compatible with the

proper care and management of the objects to be protected.

 

 

� Whereas it appears that it would be in the public interest to

reserve such lands as a national monument to be known as the

California Coastal National Monument:

 

 

� Now, Therefore, I, William J. ClInton, President of the United

States of America, by the authority vested in me by section 2 of the

Act of June 8, 1906 (34 Stat. 225, 16 U.S.C. 431), do proclaim that

there are hereby set apart and reserved as the California Coastal

National Monument, for the purpose of protecting the objects

identified above, all unappropriated or unreserved lands and

interests in lands owned or controlled by the United States in the

form of islands, rocks, exposed reefs, and pinnacles above mean high

tide within 12 nautical miles of the shoreline of the State of

California. The Federal land and interests in land reserved are

encompassed in the entire 840 mile Pacific coastline, which is the

smallest area compatible with the proper care and management of the

objects to be protected.

 

 

� The establishment of this monument is subject to valid existing

rights.

 

 

� All Federal lands and interests in lands within the boundaries of

this monument are hereby appropriated and withdrawn from all forms

of entry, location, selection, sale, leasing, or other disposition

under the public land laws, including but not limited to withdrawal

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. Lands and interests in lands within the

proposed monument not owned by the United States shall be reserved

as a part of the monument upon acquisition of title thereto by the

United States.

 

 

� The Secretary of the Interior shall manage the monument through the

Bureau of Land Management, pursuant to applicable legal authorities,

to implement the purposes of this proclamation.

 

 

� Nothing in this proclamation shall be deemed to revoke any existing

withdrawal, reservation, or appropriation; however, the national

monument shall be the dominant reservation.

 

 

� Nothing in this proclamation shall enlarge or diminish the

jurisdiction or authority of the State of California or the United

States over submerged or other lands within the territorial waters

off the coast of California.

 

 

� Nothing in this proclamation shall affect the rights or obligations

of any State or Federal oil or gas lessee within the territorial

waters off the California coast.

 

 

� 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 eleventh day

of January, in the year of our Lord two thousand, and of the

Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and

twenty-fourth.

 

 

� William J. Clinton

 

 

� [Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 10:45 a.m., January

14,2000]

 

 

� NOTE: This proclamation will be published in the Federal Register

on January 18.