Modifying the Bears Ears National Monument, 58081-58087 [2017-26709]

Agencies

• Executive Office of the President

[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 235 (Friday, December 8, 2017)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 58081-58087]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-26709]



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Vol. 82

Friday,

No. 235

December 8, 2017

Part IV





The President





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Proclamation 9681--Modifying the Bears Ears National Monument



Proclamation 9682--Modifying the Grand Staircase-Escalante National 
Monument


                        Presidential Documents 



Federal Register / Vol. 82 , No. 235 / Friday, December 8, 2017 / 
Presidential Documents

___________________________________________________________________

Title 3--
The President

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                Proclamation 9681 of December 4, 2017

                
Modifying the Bears Ears National Monument

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                In Proclamation 9558 of December 28, 2016, and 
                exercising his authority under section 320301 of title 
                54, United States Code (the ``Antiquities Act''), 
                President Barack Obama established the Bears Ears 
                National Monument in the State of Utah, reserving 
                approximately 1.35 million acres of Federal lands for 
                the care and management of objects of historic and 
                scientific interest identified therein. The monument is 
                managed jointly by the Department of the Interior's 
                Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Department of 
                Agriculture's United States Forest Service (USFS). This 
                proclamation makes certain modifications to the 
                monument.

                Proclamation 9558 identifies a long list of objects of 
                historic or scientific interest. It describes cultural 
                resources such as ancient cliff dwellings (including 
                the Moon House and Doll House Ruins), Moki Steps, 
                Native American ceremonial sites, tools and projectile 
                points, remains of single-family dwellings, granaries, 
                kivas, towers, large villages, rock shelters, caves, 
                and a prehistoric road system, as well as petroglyphs, 
                pictographs, and recent rock art left by the Ute, 
                Navajo, and Paiute peoples. It also identifies other 
                types of historic objects, such as remnants of Native 
                American sheep-herding and farming operations and early 
                engineering by pioneers and settlers, including 
                smoothed sections of rock, dugways, historic cabins, 
                corrals, trails, and inscriptions carved into rock, and 
                the Hole-in-the-Rock and Outlaw Trails. It also 
                describes landscape features such as the Bears Ears, 
                Comb Ridge, Cedar Mesa, the Valley of the Gods, the 
                Abajo Mountains, and the San Juan River, and 
                paleontological resources such as the fossil remains of 
                fishes, amphibians, reptiles, and mammals, as well as 
                dinosaur trackways and traces of other terrestrial 
                animals. Finally, it identifies several species, 
                including animals like the porcupine, badger, and 
                coyote; birds like the red-tailed hawk, Mexican spotted 
                owl, American kestrel, and turkey vulture; and plants 
                such as the Fremont cottonwood, Abajo daisy, western 
                sandbar willow, and boxelder.

                The Antiquities Act requires that any reservation of 
                land as part of a monument be confined to the smallest 
                area compatible with the proper care and management of 
                the objects of historic or scientific interest to be 
                protected. Determining the appropriate protective area 
                involves examination of a number of factors, including 
                the uniqueness and nature of the objects, the nature of 
                the needed protection, and the protection provided by 
                other laws.

                Some of the objects Proclamation 9558 identifies are 
                not unique to the monument, and some of the particular 
                examples of these objects within the monument are not 
                of significant scientific or historic interest. 
                Moreover, many of the objects Proclamation 9558 
                identifies were not under threat of damage or 
                destruction before designation such that they required 
                a reservation of land to protect them. In fact, objects 
                described in Proclamation 9558 were then--and still 
                are--subject to Federal protections under existing laws 
                and agency management designations. For example, more 
                than 500,000 acres were already being managed to 
                maintain, enhance, or protect their roadless character 
                before they were designated as part of a national 
                monument. Specifically, the BLM manages approximately 
                380,759 acres of lands

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                within the existing monument as Wilderness Study Areas, 
                which the BLM is required by law to manage so as not to 
                impair their suitability for future congressional 
                designation as Wilderness. On lands managed by the 
                USFS, 46,348 acres are part of the congressionally 
                designated Dark Canyon Wilderness Area, which, under 
                the 1964 Wilderness Act, 16 U.S.C. 1131-1136, and the 
                Utah Wilderness Act of 1984, Public Law 98-428, the 
                USFS must manage so as to maintain or enhance its 
                wilderness character. Approximately 89,396 acres of the 
                USFS lands are also included in 8 inventoried roadless 
                areas, which are managed under the USFS's 2001 Roadless 
                Rule so as to protect their wilderness character.

                A host of laws enacted after the Antiquities Act 
                provide specific protection for archaeological, 
                historic, cultural, paleontological, and plant and 
                animal resources and give authority to the BLM and USFS 
                to condition permitted activities on Federal lands, 
                whether within or outside a monument. These laws 
                include the Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 
                1979, 16 U.S.C. 470aa-470mm, National Historic 
                Preservation Act, 54 U.S.C. 300101 et seq., Bald and 
                Golden Eagle Protection Act, 16 U.S.C. 668-668d, 
                Endangered Species Act of 1973, 16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq., 
                Federal Cave Resources Protection Act of 1988, 16 
                U.S.C. 4301 et seq., Federal Land Policy and Management 
                Act of 1976, 43 U.S.C. 1701 et seq., Migratory Bird 
                Treaty Act, 16 U.S.C. 703-712, National Forest 
                Management Act, 16 U.S.C. 1600 et seq., Native American 
                Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1976, 25 
                U.S.C. 3001 et seq., and Paleontological Resources 
                Preservation Act, 16 U.S.C. 470aaa-470aaa-11. Of 
                particular note, the Archaeological Resources 
                Protection Act specifically protects archaeological 
                resources from looting or other desecration and imposes 
                criminal penalties for unauthorized excavation, 
                removal, damage, alteration, or defacement of 
                archaeological resources. Federal land management 
                agencies can grant a permit authorizing excavation or 
                removal, but only when undertaken for the purpose of 
                furthering archaeological knowledge. The 
                Paleontological Resources Preservation Act contains 
                very similar provisions protecting paleontological 
                resources. And the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and 
                Endangered Species Act protect migratory birds and 
                listed endangered and threatened species and their 
                habitats. Moreover, the BLM and the USFS were already 
                addressing many of the threats to objects identified in 
                Proclamation 9558 in their governing land-use plans 
                before designation of the monument.

                Given the nature of the objects identified on the lands 
                reserved by Proclamation 9558, the lack of a threat of 
                damage or destruction to many of those objects, and the 
                protection for those objects already provided by 
                existing law and governing land-use plans, I find that 
                the area of Federal land reserved in the Bears Ears 
                National Monument established by Proclamation 9558 is 
                not confined to the smallest area compatible with the 
                proper care and management of those objects. The 
                important objects of scientific or historic interest 
                can instead be protected by a smaller and more 
                appropriate reservation of 2 areas: Shash Jaa and 
                Indian Creek. Revising the boundaries of the monument 
                to cover these 2 areas will ensure that, in accordance 
                with the Antiquities Act, it is no larger than 
                necessary for the proper care and management of the 
                objects to be protected within the monument.

                The Shash Jaa area contains the heart of the national 
                monument: the iconic twin buttes known as the Bears 
                Ears that tower 2,000 feet above the surrounding 
                landscape and are considered sacred to the Native 
                American tribes that call this area their ancestral 
                home. Many of the significant objects described by 
                Proclamation 9558 can be found throughout the Shash Jaa 
                area. Ancestral Puebloan occupation of the area began 
                during the Basketmaker II period at least 2,500 years 
                ago, and it left behind objects such as pit houses, 
                storage pits, lithic scatters, campsites, rock 
                shelters, pictographs, and baskets, as well as manos 
                and metates for grinding corn. Occupation dating to the 
                Basketmaker III period, from approximately 500 to 750 
                C.E., left additional evidence of maize- and bean-based 
                agriculture, along with pottery, bows and arrows, pit 
                houses, kivas, storage rooms, and dispersed villages.

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                New waves of human settlement occurred around 900 C.E., 
                when the Pueblo I period gave rise to large villages 
                near Comb Wash, and 1050 C.E., when inhabitants from 
                the Pueblo II period built expansive and complex multi-
                family dwellings. Around 1150 C.E., the dawn of the 
                Pueblo III period, the area's inhabitants increasingly 
                sought shelter in cliff dwellings and left behind 
                evidence of an era of unrest. Several centuries later, 
                the Ute, Paiute, and Navajo came to occupy the area.

                East of the Bears Ears is Arch Canyon, within which 
                paleontologists have found numerous fossils from the 
                Permian and Upper Permian eras. Cliff dwellings are 
                hidden throughout the canyon, and the mouth of the 
                canyon holds the fabled Arch Canyon ruin, which spans 
                the Pueblo II and III periods and contains pictographs 
                and petroglyphs ranging from the Archaic to the 
                historic periods.

                Just south of Arch Canyon are the north and south forks 
                of Mule Canyon. Five-hundred feet deep, 5 miles long, 
                and decorated with alternating layers of red and white 
                sandstone, these 2 striking canyons contain shelter-
                cliff dwellings and other archaeological sites, 
                including the scenic and accessible House on Fire Ruin, 
                which includes differing masonry styles that indicate 
                several episodes of construction and use.

                Perched high on the open tablelands above the south 
                fork of Mule Canyon are the Mule Canyon ruins, where 
                visitors can see exposed masonry walls of ancient 
                living quarters and a partially restored kiva. The deep 
                canyons and towering mesas of the Shash Jaa area are 
                full of similar sites, including rock art, remains of 
                single-family dwellings, granaries, kivas, towers 
                (including the Cave Towers), and large villages 
                primarily from the Pueblo II and III periods, along 
                with sites from the Basketmaker and Archaic periods.

                The Shash Jaa area also includes Comb Ridge, a north-
                south trending monocline that originates near the 
                boundary of the Manti-La Sal National Forest, ends near 
                the San Juan River, and contains remnants from the 
                region's thousands of years of human habitation, 
                including cliff dwellings, granaries, kivas, ceremonial 
                sites, and the Butler Wash ruin, a world-famous 
                Ancestral Puebloan ruin with multiple rooms and kivas. 
                Comb Ridge also includes world-class examples of 
                ancient rock art, such as the Butler Wash Kachina 
                Panel, a wall-sized mural of San Juan Anthropomorph 
                figures that dates to the Basketmaker period and is 
                considered to be one of the Southwest's most important 
                petroglyph panels for understanding the daily life and 
                rituals of the Basketmaker people. Significant fossil 
                sites have also been discovered in Butler Wash.

                Just north of upper Butler Wash, the aspen-filled 
                Whiskers Draw contains a series of alcoves that have 
                sheltered evidence of human habitation for thousands of 
                years, including Cave 7, the site where Richard 
                Wetherill, as part of the Hyde Expedition in 1893, 
                first identified what we know today as the Basketmaker 
                people. The nearby Milk Ranch Point is home to a rich 
                concentration of kivas, granaries, dwellings, and other 
                evidence that Pueblo I farmers used this area to 
                cultivate corn, beans, and squash.

                The Shash Jaa area also contains the Comb Ridge Fossil 
                site, which includes a trackway created by a giant 
                arthropod (Diplichnites cuithensis), the first recorded 
                instance of such a trackway in Utah. Also, the diverse 
                landscape of the Shash Jaa area provides habitat for 
                the vast majority of plant and animal species described 
                by Proclamation 9558.

                Finally, the Shash Jaa area as described on the 
                accompanying map includes 2 non-contiguous parcels of 
                land that encompass the Moon House Ruin, an example of 
                iconic Pueblo-decorated architecture, which was likely 
                the last occupied site on Cedar Mesa, as well as Doll 
                House Ruin, a fully intact and well-preserved single 
                room granary that is associated with an extensive 
                agricultural area on the mesa top. These significant 
                ruins are important examples of cultural resource 
                objects that should remain within the monument's 
                boundaries.

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                The Indian Creek area likewise contains objects of 
                significance described in Proclamation 9558. At its 
                center is the broad Indian Creek Canyon, which is 
                characterized by sheer red cliffs and spires of exposed 
                and eroded layers of Navajo, Kayenta, Wingate, and 
                Cedar Mesa sandstone, including the iconic North and 
                South Six-Shooter Peaks.

                Also located within the Indian Creek area is the 
                Canyonlands Research Center. Spanning lands managed by 
                the National Park Service, BLM, USFS, and private 
                landowners, this unique partnership works to increase 
                our understanding of the complex natural systems on the 
                landscape, providing their custodians with information 
                they need to adapt to the challenges of a changing 
                Colorado Plateau.

                Newspaper Rock, a popular attraction in the Indian 
                Creek area, is a roadside rock art panel that has been 
                listed on the National Register of Historic Places 
                since 1976. This site displays a significant 
                concentration of rock art from multiple periods, etched 
                into Wingate sandstone. The older art is attributed to 
                the Ancestral Puebloan people who inhabited this region 
                for 2,000 years, while the more recent rock art is 
                attributed to the Ute people who still live in the Four 
                Corners area.

                In addition to Newspaper Rock, the Indian Creek area 
                contains numerous other significant rock art sites, 
                including the distinctive and well-preserved 
                petroglyphs in Shay Canyon. The area also provides 
                opportunities for cultural and scientific research and 
                paleontological study. Dinosaur tracks in the bottom of 
                the Shay Canyon stream bed are a unique visual reminder 
                of the area's distant past. Additional paleontological 
                resources can be found throughout the Indian Creek 
                area, including vertebrate and invertebrate fossils, 
                primarily in the Chinle Formation. The Indian Creek 
                area also includes 2 prominent mesas, Bridger Jack Mesa 
                and Lavender Mesa, which are home to relict plant 
                communities, predominantly composed of pinyon-juniper 
                woodland, with small, interspersed sagebrush parks, 
                that exist only on these isolated islands in the desert 
                sea and are, generally, unaltered by humans. These 
                mesas provide the opportunity for comparative studies 
                of pinyon-juniper woodland and sagebrush communities in 
                other parts of the Colorado Plateau. Additionally, the 
                Indian Creek area includes the exposed Chinle 
                Formation, known for abundant fossilized flora and 
                fauna, including pelecypods, gastropods, arthropods, 
                fishes, amphibians, and reptiles (including dinosaurs). 
                Finally, the area is well known for vertebrate 
                trackways, including tetrapod footprints.

                Some of the existing monument's objects, or certain 
                examples of those objects, are not within the 
                monument's revised boundaries because they are 
                adequately protected by existing law, designation, 
                agency policy, or governing land-use plans. For 
                example, although the modified boundaries do not 
                include the San Juan River or the Valley of the Gods, 
                both of those areas are protected by existing 
                administratively designated Areas of Critical 
                Environmental Concern. Plant and animal species such as 
                the bighorn sheep, the Kachina daisy, the Utah night 
                lizard, and the Eucosma navojoensis moth are protected 
                by the Endangered Species Act and existing land-use 
                plans and policies protecting special-status species. 
                Additionally, some of the range of these species falls 
                within existing Wilderness Areas and Wilderness Study 
                Areas. Finally, although Hideout Canyon is likewise not 
                included within the modified boundaries, it is 
                generally not threatened and is partially within a 
                Wilderness Study Area.

                The areas described above are the smallest compatible 
                with the protection of the important objects identified 
                in Proclamation 9558. The modification of the Bears 
                Ears National Monument will maintain and protect those 
                objects and preserve the area's cultural, scientific, 
                and historic legacy.

                WHEREAS, Proclamation 9558 of December 28, 2016, 
                designated the Bears Ears National Monument in the 
                State of Utah and reserved approximately 1.35 million 
                acres of Federal lands for the care and management of 
                the Bears Ears buttes and other objects of historic and 
                scientific interest identified therein; and

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                WHEREAS, many of the objects identified by Proclamation 
                9558 are otherwise protected by Federal law; and

                WHEREAS, it is in the public interest to modify the 
                boundaries of the monument to exclude from its 
                designation and reservation approximately 1,150,860 
                acres of land that I find are unnecessary for the care 
                and management of the objects to be protected within 
                the monument; and

                WHEREAS, the boundaries of the monument reservation 
                should therefore be reduced to the smallest area 
                compatible with the protection of the objects of 
                scientific or historic interest as described above in 
                this proclamation;

                NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the 
                United States of America, by the authority vested in me 
                by section 320301 of title 54, United States Code, 
                hereby proclaim that the boundaries of the Bears Ears 
                National Monument are hereby modified and reduced to 
                those lands and interests in land 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. I hereby further 
                proclaim that the modified monument areas identified on 
                the accompanying map shall be known as the Indian Creek 
                and Shash Jaa units of the monument, the latter of 
                which shall include the Moon House and Doll House 
                Ruins. These reserved Federal lands and interests in 
                lands cumulatively encompass approximately 201,876 
                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. Any lands reserved by Proclamation 9558 not 
                within the boundaries identified on the accompanying 
                map are hereby excluded from the monument.

                At 9:00 a.m., eastern standard time, on the date that 
                is 60 days after the date of this proclamation, subject 
                to valid existing rights, the provisions of existing 
                withdrawals, and the requirements of applicable law, 
                the public and National Forest System lands excluded 
                from the monument reservation shall be open to:

                    (1) entry, location, selection, sale, or other 
                disposition under the public land laws and laws 
                applicable to the U.S. Forest Service;
                    (2) disposition under all laws relating to mineral 
                and geothermal leasing; and
                    (3) location, entry, and patent under the mining 
                laws.

                Appropriation of lands under the mining laws before the 
                date and time of restoration is unauthorized. Any such 
                attempted appropriation, including attempted adverse 
                possession under 30 U.S.C. 38, shall vest no rights 
                against the United States. Acts required to establish a 
                location and to initiate a right of possession are 
                governed by State law where not in conflict with 
                Federal law.

                Nothing in this proclamation shall be construed to 
                remove any lands from the Manti-La Sal National Forest 
                or to otherwise revoke, modify, or affect any 
                withdrawal, reservation, or appropriation, other than 
                the one created by Proclamation 9558.

                Nothing in this proclamation shall change the 
                management of the areas designated and reserved by 
                Proclamation 9558 that remain part of the monument in 
                accordance with the terms of this proclamation, except 
                as provided by the following 4 paragraphs:

                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, 
                Proclamation 9558 established a Commission to provide 
                guidance and recommendations on the development and 
                implementation of management plans and on management of 
                the monument, and to partner with Federal agencies by 
                making continuing contributions to inform decisions 
                regarding the management of the monument. In order to

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                ensure that the full range of tribal expertise and 
                traditional historical knowledge is included in such 
                guidance and recommendations, paragraph 29 of 
                Proclamation 9558 is hereby revised to provide that the 
                Bears Ears Commission shall be known as the Shash Jaa 
                Commission, shall apply only to the Shash Jaa unit as 
                described herein, and shall also include the elected 
                officer of the San Juan County Commission representing 
                District 3 acting in that officer's official capacity.

                Proclamation 9558 is hereby revised to clarify that, 
                pending preparation of the transportation plan required 
                by paragraph 34 thereof, the Secretaries of the 
                Interior and Agriculture may allow motorized and non-
                mechanized vehicle use on roads and trails designated 
                for such use immediately before the issuance of 
                Proclamation 9558 and maintain roads and trails for 
                such use.

                Paragraph 35 of Proclamation 9558 governing livestock 
                grazing in the monument is hereby revised to read as 
                follows: ``Nothing in this proclamation shall be deemed 
                to affect authorizations for livestock grazing, or 
                administration thereof, on Federal lands within the 
                monument. Livestock grazing within the monument shall 
                continue to be governed by laws and regulations other 
                than this proclamation.''

                Proclamation 9558 is amended to clarify that, 
                consistent with the care and management of the objects 
                identified above, the Secretaries of the Interior and 
                Agriculture may authorize ecological restoration and 
                active vegetation management activities in the 
                monument.

                If any provision of this proclamation, including its 
                application to a particular parcel of land, is held to 
                be invalid, the remainder of this proclamation and its 
                application to other parcels of land shall not be 
                affected thereby.

                IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 
                fourth day of December, in the year of our Lord two 
                thousand seventeen, and of the Independence of the 
                United States of America the two hundred and forty-
                second.
                
                
                    (Presidential Sig.)

Billing code 3295-F8-P



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[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TD08DE17.003


[FR Doc. 2017-26709
Filed 12-7-17; 11:15 am]
Billing code 4310-10-C