Presidential Document2021-22673
Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument
Primary source
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Published
October 15, 2021
Signed
October 8, 2021
Issuing agencies
Executive Office of the President
Full Text
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[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 197 (Friday, October 15, 2021)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 57335-57347]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2021-22673]
Presidential Documents
Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 197 / Friday, October 15, 2021 /
Presidential Documents
[[Page 57335]]
Proclamation 10286 of October 8, 2021
Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
President Clinton's designation of the Grand Staircase-
Escalante National Monument in Proclamation 6920 of
September 18, 1996, was a watershed moment for
conservation in the United States. Proclamation 6920
represents the first time a President designated a
national monument under the Antiquities Act to be
managed by the Bureau of Land Management, signaling the
dawn of the modern era of Antiquities Act protection
and a reawakening of conservation efforts on public
lands in the West.
Proclamation 6920 describes the rich mosaic of objects
of historic and scientific interest across Grand
Staircase-Escalante. Proclamation 6920 details the
monument's varied geology, from the cliffs of the Grand
Staircase in the west, to the fossil-rich formations in
the Kaiparowits Plateau that demonstrate billions of
years of geology infused with world-class
paleontological sites, to the badlands of the Burning
Hills in the center, to the intricate and complex
system of canyons in the Escalante region in the east.
The proclamation goes on to describe the area's rich
human history, spanning from the indigenous people and
cultures who made this area home to Anglo-American
explorers and early Latter-day Saint pioneers. The
proclamation further identifies outstanding biological
resources, describing the monument as ``in the heart of
perhaps the richest floristic region in the
Intermountain West,'' spanning five life zones and
supporting diverse, rare, and endemic populations of
plants and a diversity of animals, as well as unusual
and diverse soils that support communities of mosses,
lichens, and cyanobacteria. In addition, the
proclamation describes the vast opportunities for
additional scientific research and discovery within the
monument. Grand Staircase-Escalante has become the
focus of a multi-disciplinary study of its large
landscape for the benefit of current and future
generations.
After the monument was established, the Congress
adjusted the boundaries or ratified the acquisition of
additional lands within the monument on three separate
occasions, in some cases adding lands, in other cases
subtracting lands. When the Congress had completed its
fine-tuning, it had increased the monument's
reservation by more than 180,000 acres, bringing the
total Federal lands within the monument boundaries to
approximately 1.87 million acres.
Remarkably, given its size, in the 25 years since its
designation, Grand Staircase-Escalante has fulfilled
the vision of an outdoor laboratory with great
potential for diverse and significant scientific
discoveries. During this period, hundreds of scientific
studies and projects have been conducted within the
monument, including investigating how the monument's
geology provides insight into the hydrology of Mars;
discovering many previously unknown species of
dinosaurs, some of which have become household names;
unearthing some of the oldest marsupial fossils ever
identified; conducting extensive inventories of
invertebrates, including the identification of more
than 600 species of bees, some of which likely exist
nowhere else on Earth; performing hydrologic research
in the Escalante River and Deer Creek; studying and
restoring habitat for amphibians, mammals, and bird
species, including the reintroduction of bighorn sheep
and pronghorn
[[Page 57336]]
to their native range; completing rangeland science
assessments, including a complete Level III soils
survey; carrying out widespread archaeological surveys
that have documented important sites and rock writings;
and implementing social science projects related to
visitor experiences and impacts. New scientific
discoveries are likely just around the corner; for
example, scientists have collected thousands of
specimens of invertebrates from the monument that await
further study and are expected to yield new species
that are endemic to the monument. Scientists have
utilized every corner of the monument in their efforts
to better understand our environment, our history, our
planet's past, and our place in the universe.
On December 4, 2017, President Donald Trump issued
Proclamation 9682 to reduce the monument by over
860,000 acres. Proclamation 9682 removes protection
from objects of historic and scientific interest across
the Grand Staircase-Escalante landscape, including some
resources Proclamation 6920 specifically identifies for
protection. Multiple parties challenged Proclamation
9682 in Federal court, asserting that it exceeded the
President's authority under the Antiquities Act.
Restoring the Grand Staircase-Escalante National
Monument to its size and boundaries as they existed
prior to December 4, 2017, will ensure that this
exceptional and inimitable landscape filled with an
unparalleled diversity of resources will be properly
protected and will continue to provide the living
laboratory that has produced so many dramatic
discoveries in the first quarter century of its
existence. Given the unique nature of the objects
identified across the Grand Staircase-Escalante
landscape, the threat of damage and destruction to
those objects, and the current inadequate protection
they are afforded, a reservation of this size is the
smallest area compatible with the proper care and
management of the objects of historic and scientific
interest named in this proclamation and Proclamation
6920.
The entire Grand Staircase-Escalante landscape--
stretching from Skutumpah Terrace and the escarpments
of the Grand Staircase in the west, Nipple Bench, Smoky
Mountain, the Burning Hills, Grand Bench, the East and
West Clark Benches, and Buckskin Mountain in the south,
the Hole-in-the-Rock Trail that runs through the
Escalante Desert, Upper Escalante Canyons, and Circle
Cliffs in the northeast, and Alvey Wash and the Blues
in the north--is an object of historic and scientific
interest requiring protection under the Antiquities
Act. There are innumerable objects of historic or
scientific interest within this extraordinary
landscape. Some of the objects are also sacred to
Tribal Nations, rare, fragile, or vulnerable to
vandalism and theft, or are dangerous to visit and,
therefore, revealing their specific names and locations
could pose a danger to the objects or the public.
High, rugged, and remote, the vast and austere Grand
Staircase-Escalante landscape is characterized by bold
plateaus and multihued cliffs that run for distances
that defy human perspective. It is also home to world-
famous slot canyons that are so deep and narrow that
sunlight almost never penetrates their ultimate depths,
and pools of numbingly cold water remain throughout the
hottest months. Despite being the last place in the
contiguous United States to be mapped and remaining a
remote and primitive landscape to this day, the Grand
Staircase-Escalante area has a long and dignified human
history. The landscape teems with evidence of the
efforts expended by both indigenous people and early
Anglo pioneers to carve existences into an arid and
unforgiving region. The Grand Staircase-Escalante
region retains the frontier character of the American
West, providing visitors with an opportunity to
experience a remote landscape rich with opportunities
for adventure and self-discovery. It is unique and rare
in today's world to encounter a place where one can
wander and ponder undisturbed, and explore and discover
at one's own pace. It also serves as an outdoor
laboratory on the frontier of scientific research that
continues to regularly reveal important insights into
our planet and our past.
[[Page 57337]]
The Grand Staircase-Escalante landscape is a geologic
treasure of clearly exposed stratigraphy and
structures. The sedimentary rock layers are relatively
undeformed and unobscured by vegetation, offering a
clear view to understanding the Earth's geological
development. Owing in large part to the exposure of so
many formations, the landscape is one of the world's
great paleontological laboratories. From remarkable
specimens of petrified wood, to the most continuous
record of Late Cretaceous life, to the first evidence
that tyrannosaurs hunted in packs, to marble-like iron
oxide concretions found in Navajo Sandstone that
provide insight into Martian geology, the ongoing
discoveries on the Grand Staircase-Escalante landscape
continue to make invaluable contributions to our
understanding of the planet's past. Despite the
abundance of paleontological discoveries that have
occurred on the landscape, and the wealth of
information they have provided about the entire
Mesozoic Era, it is likely that we have thus far
uncovered only a fragment of Grand Staircase-
Escalante's paleontological story.
Rich in human history, the Grand Staircase-Escalante
landscape abounds in evidence of habitation by the
Ancestral Pueblo and Fremont cultures. Tribal Nations,
including the Hopi Tribe, the Kaibab Band of Paiute
Indians, the Navajo Nation, the Paiute Indian Tribe of
Utah, the San Juan Southern Paiute Tribe of Arizona,
the Pueblo of Acoma, the Pueblo of San Felipe, the
Pueblo of Tesuque, and the Pueblo of Zuni, have
ancestral, cultural, or historical ties to this area
and continue to use the area to this day. The Southern
Paiute people in particular hold these lands sacred as
they make up a portion of their traditional homeland.
The landscape has also played an important role in
European settlement of the American West. In 1776, the
Dominguez-Escalante expedition may have passed through
the region, and subsequent travelers on the Armijo
Route of the Old Spanish Trail journeyed up the Paria
River, through Cottonwood Canyon and the Cockscomb, and
to the west through Kimball Valley and along parts of
Telegraph Flat below the Vermillion Cliffs. The John
Wesley Powell expedition created some of the earliest
maps of the area in 1872, and later that decade,
Latter-day Saint pioneers literally etched portions of
the Hole-in-the-Rock Trail across the desert in their
efforts to settle southern Utah.
The landscape is also an outstanding biological
resource. As a result of the blending of warm and cold
desert flora and the high number of endemic species,
the Grand Staircase-Escalante landscape, which contains
50 percent of Utah's rare flora and 125 species of
plants that occur only in Utah or on the Colorado
Plateau, is one of the most floristically rich regions
in the Intermountain West. An abundance of unique,
isolated plant communities can be found, such as
hanging gardens, tinajas, and rock crevice, canyon
bottom, and dunal pocket communities. Large expanses of
various exposed geologic strata, each with unique
physical and chemical characteristics, have resulted in
a spectacular array of unusual and diverse soils,
including desert pavement and biological soil crusts,
which support a wide range of vegetative communities,
such as relict plant communities that have existed
since the Pleistocene, and a multitude of endemic
plants and pollinators. For example, lands within the
Grand Staircase-Escalante landscape contain an
astounding biodiversity of bees due, in large part, to
the substantial elevational gradient, diversity of
habitats, and abundance of flowering plants. The area
is home to hundreds of bee species, including dozens of
species that are believed to be unique to this
landscape. Many of the species found in the Grand
Staircase-Escalante region are highly localized, with
small populations occurring in only a few locations or
near certain flowering plants. Wildlife also
flourishes; from mountain lion, bear, pronghorn, and
desert bighorn sheep, to hundreds of species of birds,
the landscape's location and the great variation in its
elevation and topography have created a unique
environment where suitable habitat exists for species
associated with multiple eco-regions.
The Grand Staircase-Escalante's large, isolated, and,
at times, impenetrable landscape is one of the most
naturally dark outdoor spaces left in America,
providing views of the cosmos that are nearly unrivaled
in the contiguous
[[Page 57338]]
United States, and an opportunity for visitors to
encounter a landscape at night, undisturbed by electric
lights, in the same way people have experienced the
West for most of America's history. According to recent
research, over 90 percent of the landscape, or nearly
1.7 million acres, contains pristine night skies,
meaning that observers would see no indication of
artificial skyglow anywhere in the night sky. Only
natural sources of light are visible to the human eye,
such as starlight, airglow, aurora, and zodiacal light.
Comparatively, less than one third of the land area of
the United States regularly experiences this degree of
natural darkness, and most of that land is located in
Alaska. The Grand Staircase-Escalante area also
provides a remarkable natural soundscape with
infrequent human-caused sounds. From popular
recreational destinations to remote, isolated
locations, acoustic baseline research has found that
some of the quietest conditions found in protected
areas across the United States can be found in the
Grand Staircase-Escalante landscape.
The Grand Staircase-Escalante landscape is akin to a
nesting doll of objects of historic and scientific
interest. The landscape as a whole is an important
object that provides context for each of its
constituent parts. Within the whole are distinct and
unique areas, which are themselves objects qualifying
for protection. In turn, each of those areas contain
innumerable individual fossils, archaeological sites,
rare species, and other objects that are independently
of historic or scientific interest and require
protection under the Antiquities Act.
Located in the northeast corner of the Grand Staircase-
Escalante landscape adjacent to Capitol Reef National
Park is the Circle Cliffs area, which is dominated by a
northwest-trending sandstone anticline and dramatic red
sandstone cliffs. The area also encompasses several sky
islands, including Studhorse Peaks, Colt Mesa, and Deer
Point, the latter of which provides exquisite views of
Waterpocket Fold--a stunning fold in the area's
geologic layers that is the central feature of Capitol
Reef National Park. The ecologically intact region
provides important winter habitat for elk and contains
a significant number of cultural sites used by
Ancestral Pueblos and the Fremont. Specimens of
petrified wood can be found across the Circle Cliffs
area, including in the well-known Wolverine Petrified
Wood Area, which includes some largely intact logs
nearly 100 feet in length. Additionally, the Circle
Cliffs landscape is rich in paleontological resources.
The area, with geology dating back to the Triassic and
Permian Periods, contains at least 45 known
paleontological sites, including one in which a nearly
complete articulated skeleton of Poposaurus--a rare
bipedal crocodilian from the Late Triassic Period--was
found. The Circle Cliffs landscape also contains
portions of the Burr Trail, a route originally blazed
by stockman John Atlantic Burr that is now a Utah
Scenic Backway offering remarkable views of the
Waterpocket Fold, the Henry Mountains, and the Boulder
Mountain area of the Aquarius Plateau.
West of the Circle Cliffs and bisected by the Escalante
River is the awe-inspiring Upper Escalante Canyons
landscape. In this region, vivid geological features
are laid bare in narrow, serpentine canyons, where
erosion has exposed rolling expanses of petrified dunes
and rock striations in shades of red, salmon, white,
buff, and rust. The area's resources are almost too
numerous to name. There are natural bridges and arches,
such as Maverick Natural Bridge and Phipps Arch, the
130-foot tall Escalante Natural Bridge, and Bowington
Arch; a large and unusual circular erosional sandstone
formation that has sparked the public's imagination, as
evidenced by its many names, including the Cosmic
Navel; and several world-class slot canyons that draw
adventurers from the world over, such as the Dry Fork
of Coyote Gulch, Brimstone Canyon, Peek-a-boo Canyon,
Spooky Gulch, Zebra and Tunnel Slot Canyons, and the
Egypt Slots. The Escalante Canyons landscape also
contains a high density of Fremont prehistoric sites,
such as pithouses, villages, and storage cysts. The
area's many canyons contain a world-class density and
variety of Fremont, Ancestral Pueblo, and Southern
Paiute rock writings, including a panel that is
particularly meaningful to Tribal Nations
[[Page 57339]]
with ancestral and historical ties to the area and
another panel containing polychromatic depictions of
long, linear figures that may date back to the Archaic
period. The Escalante Canyons landscape also contains
many inscriptions left by early settlers of European
descent and significant historic sites telling tales of
the region's more recent past, such as the Boulder Mail
Trail, which was used to ferry mail between the small
desert outpost towns of Escalante and Boulder beginning
in 1902. The Boulder Mail Trail intersects incredibly
scenic canyons that empty into the Escalante River. The
narrow sandstone walls of Sand Creek shade a perennial
stream that meanders through cool pools and supports
riparian habitat and hanging gardens. Perennial flows
are also found in Death Hollow, a stunning canyon
chiseled into yellow and white Navajo Sandstone that is
narrow and extraordinarily deep in its upper reaches
before transitioning near the Boulder Mail Trail into a
wider canyon dotted with ponderosa pine and riparian
habitat. As a result of the abundance of water in
tributaries of the Escalante River, as well as various
seeps and springs, the Escalante Canyons area is dotted
with hanging gardens, tinajas, and riparian vegetation
that provide oases of sorts in an otherwise arid
environment. The area is distilled to its essence in
Calf Creek Canyon, the home of towering Navajo
Sandstone cliffs, lush vegetation, cultural sites, and
a perennial stream with two waterfalls: a slender 88-
foot plunge in the upper part of the canyon, and a 126-
foot cascade farther downstream that is one of the more
elegant waterfalls in the entire Southwest. The upper
part of the watershed is strewn with black basalt
boulders and expanses of iron concretion sheets.
To the southeast of the Upper Escalante Canyons,
adjacent to Capitol Reef National Park and Glen Canyon
National Recreation Area, is a region with a rich
pioneer history that functions as a gateway to the many
slot canyons and arches near the Escalante River.
Traversing the area is the historically significant
Hole-in-the-Rock Road, which generally follows the
route that Latter-day Saint pioneers constructed
between 1879 and 1880 when crossing southern Utah to
establish a wagon route between Escalante and southeast
Utah settlements. Today, the road provides access to
many of the landscape's resources, including Devil's
Garden, an area with hoodoos, colorful rock formations,
and unique sandstone arches like the impressively
delicate Metate Arch; the small but attractive Little
Jumbo Arch; the widely photographed Sunrise and Sunset
arches; and Chimney Rock, a remote, lonely sandstone
pillar that seems to defy its otherwise flat
surroundings. This area is also the location of Dance
Hall Rock, an important landmark where Latter-day Saint
pioneers camped and held meetings and dances when
constructing the Hole-in-the-Rock Trail. These
uncompromising desert lands are home to high
concentrations of rare species of bees with fascinating
adaptations to their local environment, such as
Diadasia bees, which build nests in the hard desert
soil that feature a clay chimney on top, an
architectural design that has, thus far, stumped
scientists trying to understand its utility. Consisting
of rock primarily from the Jurassic Period, there are
many paleontological sites in this region. Among those,
the sprawling Twentymile Wash Dinosaur Megatrackway
consists of more than several hundred individual
dinosaur tracks and what some scientists believe is a
rare, mid-line tail-drag impression left in the
Escalante Member of the Entrada Formation by a
sauropod, or long-necked dinosaur.
At the center of the Grand Staircase-Escalante
landscape is the Kaiparowits Plateau, containing
roughly 1,600 square miles of sedimentary rock that
towers over the surrounding area. The plateau is
bordered on the east side by the Straight Cliffs, which
stretch from near the beginning of the Escalante River
to Fiftymile Mountain, and on the west by the East
Kaibab Monocline, better known as the Cockscomb. The
area is made up of steep-walled canyons, escarpments,
towers, arches, and a series of benches that ascend
from the southern border of the Grand Staircase-
Escalante landscape. The Cockscomb is formed by
parallel ridges with an intersecting steep v-shaped
trough, and flatirons, small monoliths, and other
colorful formations along the western ridge. The
plateau has evidence of thousands of years
[[Page 57340]]
of human habitation with sites attributed to many
prehistoric cultures in southern Utah. Bighorn sheep
and pronghorn have historically roamed the Kaiparowits
Plateau--as evidenced by the area's petroglyph and
pictograph panels--and reproducing populations have
been reintroduced in recent years. The area is also
home to a small population of chuckwalla and a
population of desert night lizard, a species rarely
seen in Utah.
The stratified geology of the Kaiparowits Plateau
exposes fossils and other indicia of hundreds of
millions of years of our planet's history, the only
evidence in our hemisphere of mammals from the
Cenomanian through Santonian ages and one of the
world's best and most continuous records of Late
Cretaceous terrestrial life. To date, many thousands of
fossil sites have been documented on the plateau,
including evidence of at least 15 previously unknown
species of dinosaur. Fossils are preserved in stunning
detail rarely seen in North America, including traces
of soft tissue and the impressions of skin, beaks, and
claws. The plateau contains a diverse assemblage of
Campanian fauna, including a remarkable record of
vertebrate species that include many new taxa and new
temporal and geographic occurrences, thereby making the
Kaiparowits Plateau an important scientific resource
providing insight to the Late Cretaceous biosphere.
The Kaiparowits Plateau comprises multiple geological
formations. The Kaiparowits and Wahweap Formations
contain diverse and unique fossil evidence of ancient
fauna and flora, including pterosaurs, frogs,
salamanders, and snakes, that are fundamentally
different from discoveries in other parts of North
America. The Kaiparowits Formation has produced many
ancient vertebrate taxa that are entirely new to
science, including a vast array of horned dinosaurs,
such as the Nasutoceratops, Kosmoceratops, and
Utahceratops, a new species of Gryposaurus possessing a
more robust skull, a new raptor, and the tyrannosaurid
Teratophoneus. It has also produced evidence of a
potentially new crested duck-billed dinosaur and
incredibly diverse vegetative communities with
previously undescribed fossil trees and aquatic plants.
In 2018, researchers recovered the Akainacephalus,
which is the most complete ankylosaur ever recovered in
the southwestern United States. Exploration of the
Wahweap Formation, while still in early stages, has led
to striking Mesozoic Era discoveries, including the
horned dinosaur Diabloceratops and the tyrannosaurid
Lythronax. Similarly, the Dakota Formation contains
some of the earliest evidence of mammals in the fossil
record, and the Tropic Shale Formation includes
important marine reptiles such as five species of
plesiosaur and North America's oldest mosasaur. There
are at least two mass mortality sites on the
Kaiparowits Plateau, including the Rainbows and
Unicorns site, which preserves the relatively complete
remains of at least four tyrannosaurs ranging in age
from juvenile to large adult, indicating that
tyrannosaurs may have been social hunters and engaged
in extended parental care, and Uncle Charley's Bonebed,
which produced the fossilized remains of extinct
tortoises, many of which had soft tissue preservation
of skin and claws, and one of which even had a clutch
of eggs preserved in its carapace. In addition,
petrified wood from the Late Jurassic and Late
Cretaceous Periods is found in the Morrison, Wahweap,
and Kaiparowits Formations. The plateau also has an
expansive exposure of a unique deposit of fossil oyster
beds up to six feet thick from the Cretaceous Period,
along with other marine mollusk shells.
The eastern portion of the Kaiparowits Plateau is
dominated by Fiftymile Mountain and Fiftymile Bench.
The upper elevations of these bench lands contain rich
and varied ecosystems that include pinyon and juniper
woodlands, ponderosa pine forests, and aspen groves.
The area is dissected by a labyrinth of picturesque
canyons, many of which contain important riparian
ecosystems. The Fiftymile Mountain area has a high
density of archaeological sites, including masonry
structures, which have architectural styles suggesting
that the Virgin Branch and Kayenta Branch of Ancestral
Pueblos and the Fremont culture converged in the area.
There are also sites considered sacred to several
Tribal Nations with historical or ancestral ties to the
Grand Staircase-Escalante region. This area further
contains evidence of
[[Page 57341]]
early pioneers who tried to scratch out a life on the
sparse landscape, including historic cabins, fences,
and stock trails. The sagebrush steppe ecosystem of
Fiftymile Bench provides views of Window Wind Arch and
striking vistas of the skyscraper-like escarpment that
is the eastern face of the Straight Cliffs. The
Straight Cliffs Formation, which is particularly
exposed in this part of southern Utah, is rich with
fossil resources containing evidence of primitive
mammals, as well as straight cone cephalopods,
ammonites, gastropods, pelecypods, and Cretaceous shark
teeth. The Straight Cliffs also contain many clusters
of balanced or pedestal rocks, known as hoodoos. Sooner
Rocks, at the base of the Straight Cliffs, provides
outstanding examples of the geologic feature known as
``mega-potholes'' that are more often found in some of
the sandstone formations in and around Glen Canyon.
Grand Bench lies on the southeastern border of the
Kaiparowits Plateau between the Burning Hills to the
west and Fiftymile Mountain to the east. The sparse
road network in Grand Bench makes it one of the most
remote locations in the Grand Staircase-Escalante, with
largely unspoiled and unimpeded views of the night sky.
The Grand Bench area is also home to the mostly
freestanding Woolsey Arch, as well as many recorded
paleontology sites found in its Cretaceous and Jurassic
Period rocks, including petrified wood and important
fossils.
The Smoky Mountain area just west of Grand Bench on the
Kaiparowits Plateau provides a striking scene. The
steep and rugged hilltops of the Burning Hills have
been scorched red by naturally occurring underground
coal fires that have been smoldering for hundreds, if
not thousands, of years. Similarly, Smoky Mountain is
dotted with natural chimneys that release hot smoke and
sulfuric gasses from the coal fires below. Despite the
hostile environment, this area is home to a number of
rare and endemic plant species, including Atwood
evening primrose and Smoky Mountain globemallow, as
well as a thriving herd of desert bighorn sheep and
nesting areas for a high density of raptors.
The lower benches of the Kaiparowits Plateau, including
John Henry Bench, Tibbet Bench, Nipple Bench, and Jack
Riggs Bench, lie to the west of Smoky Mountain and
provide important habitat for big game, including
desert bighorn sheep and pronghorn, and sweeping views
to the south. The Cretaceous Wahweap Formation runs
through the area and has been the site of many
important fossil finds, including turtle shells,
dinosaurs, and crocodile teeth. Just west of Nipple
Bench are the Wahweap Hoodoos, ghostly white formations
with brown capstones that can appear to float in the
right conditions.
Alvey Wash is situated in the northern part of the
Kaiparowits Plateau, close to the Straight Cliffs, and
north of Death Ridge. In addition to providing access
to the interior of the Kaiparowits Plateau, the Alvey
Wash area contains geologic objects of historic and
scientific interest, including various arches and
portions of the Smoky Mountain Road State Scenic
Backway, a remote, unpaved route that offers
unparalleled views of Lake Powell and the Kaiparowits
Plateau. The region's fossil-rich Cretaceous rocks
contain more than a hundred known recorded
paleontological sites. Alvey Wash, which likely acted
as an important travel route between the Escalante
River and the top of the Kaiparowits Plateau, also
contains several important Fremont and Ancestral Pueblo
sites, including rock writings, rock shelters,
cliffside storage structures, and pithouses.
In the northern part of the landscape, east of the
towns of Tropic and Cannonville, are the Blues, an area
named for the blue-grey sandstone that provides a
striking contrast against the forested uplands and the
pink and white cliffs of Powell Point towering in the
background. The velvety gray slopes of these shale
badlands include exposures of the Kaiparowits Formation
that are unique on the Colorado Plateau. Representing
rapid accumulation of sediment during the Late
Cretaceous Period, the stratigraphy has facilitated the
discovery of a diversity of fossils, including early
mammals,
[[Page 57342]]
lizards, dinosaurs, crocodilians, turtles, mollusks,
and some fossils found nowhere else on Earth, including
one of the largest oviraptors ever discovered. This
area may also provide habitat for many raptor species,
including Swainson's hawks, golden eagles, and
peregrine falcons.
South of the Blues, the Butler Valley area provides
jaw-dropping views of multi-colored sandstone cliffs to
the north and contains important microvertebrate fossil
localities in the Smoky Hollow Member of the Straight
Cliffs Formation found near the upper reaches of
Wiggler Wash. Also nearby is Grosvenor Arch, a rare
double arch with sandstone buttresses that soars 150
feet in the air, as well as the tight canyons of Butler
Valley and Round Valley Draw.
To the west of the Cockscomb lies the Hackberry Canyon
area, with a deep gorge containing towering Wingate
Sandstone cliffs and impressive narrows, and Yellow
Rock, a smooth-sided dome that obtains its unique
appearance from evaporated pools of water and the
presence of limonite in its swirling Navajo Sandstone.
With limited vegetation, Yellow Rock provides a
commanding view of Hackberry Canyon to the north, the
Paria River to the west, and the Cockscomb to the east.
The area's high scenic quality is further enhanced by a
number of towering arches, including Sam Pollock Arch,
which spans 70 feet in a tributary of Hackberry Canyon.
The Hackberry Canyon area contains Virgin Branch of
Ancestral Pueblo sites, such as rock shelters,
pithouses, lithic scatters, and masonry structures, as
well as rock writings that can be found in side
canyons. Hackberry Canyon also contains evidence of
later Anglo habitation, including Watson Cabin, a one-
room log cabin with a fieldstone chimney that was built
in the early 1890s and is one of the few standing
pioneer structures in the region.
To the west of the Kaiparowits Plateau, the Upper Paria
River complex is a highly scenic and colorful maze of
canyons, arches, and ``hydrothermal-collapse'' pipes
and dikes that expose the multihued Carmel and Entrada
Formations. The area is home to many perennial streams,
the Paria River, and hundreds of acres of riparian
vegetation, all of which support a particularly rich
diversity of terrestrial vertebrate and avian species.
Flowing continuously for most of the year thanks to
water from the higher elevations in the north and west,
the area's perennial streams have left the area
dissected with canyons that eventually drain into the
Paria River. As the flow increases, the Paria River
cuts its way through a series of benches and cliffs
that form a portion of the Grand Staircase as it
meanders towards its confluence with the Colorado River
near Lee's Ferry. For example, there is the spring-fed
Willis Creek, which flows year-round through a
moderately deep gorge that contains several sections of
elegant narrows. Other nearby canyons, although dry
most of the year, are subject to extreme erosional
events from passing storms, such as Lick Wash, a deep
canyon enclosed by horizontally striated white
sandstone walls that are hundreds of feet high, and
Bull Valley Gorge, an impressively deep and narrow
canyon cut through Navajo Sandstone containing a
variety of rock formations and colors. The Upper Paria
River complex contains paleontological sites found in
strata from the Jurassic and Cretaceous Periods. The
Paria River corridor is also the site of the Paria
ghost town, the only historic townsite in the monument.
First settled by Latter-day Saint pioneers in 1865 as a
farming community, the town was largely abandoned after
a series of floods in the late 1800s, save for a post
office, which served the area for many years.
After the Paria River crosses the Cockscomb and enters
Cottonwood Canyon, it feeds a rich riparian area that
provides important habitat for the endangered
southwestern willow flycatcher. Cottonwood Canyon and
the nearby Rimrocks area are home to a number of rare
plants, such as the Tropic goldeneye and Atwood's
pretty phacelia. This area, down to West Clark Bench,
is also characterized by high ecological system
diversity and is home to a number of rare bee species
as well as a number of hot desert endemic species of
bees in the northernmost known extent of their range.
[[Page 57343]]
The Rimrocks area is home to striking geological
formations known as the Toadstool Hoodoos, fascinating
features composed of Dakota Sandstone boulders perched
precariously atop softer and eroded Entrada Sandstone,
and a narrow slot canyon that contains rock writings.
Further east, other geological formations include the
White Rocks, and to the south, the area around the East
and West Clark Benches forms a barren and austere
landscape that exposes Jurassic and Cretaceous Period
rocks rich in paleontological resources.
On the west side of the landscape is the Grand
Staircase, a series of intensely colorful cliffs and
plateaus that connect Bryce Canyon to the Grand Canyon.
The Grey Cliffs are composed of soft Cretaceous shale
and sandstone in subdued shades of gray, brown, and
yellow that were deposited approximately 130 million
years ago. The White Cliffs are high white or yellow
cliffs of Navajo Sandstone that consistently reach
heights of more than 1,000 feet. The area is home to
rare and endemic bee species, particularly near Timber
Mountain. The area also contains a number of relict
plant communities on the sky islands of No Man's Mesa
and Little No Man's Mesa, whose steep walls have
guarded such communities for thousands of years,
providing a living window into the past. Further south,
the eponymous Vermilion Cliffs, once the shoreline for
the ancient Lake Dixie, contain fossilized fish,
dinosaurs, and early reptiles, as well as multiple
tracksites. The Flag Point tracksite provides an
enduring testament to humans' fascination with the
traces of epochs past. The site contains a series of
theropod tracks leading right to the cliff edge and,
nearby, pictographs of the tracks that were likely left
by ancient indigenous peoples living in nearby
communities. The Grand Staircase area is also replete
with evidence of thousands of years of human
habitation. Pre-historic projectile points and hunter-
gatherer residential pit structures are found in the
higher elevations, whereas evidence of some of the
earliest corn-related agriculture in the Southwest,
developed by the Virgin Branch of Ancestral Pueblos, as
well as evidence of the Southern Paiute people, who
identify this area as part of their ancestral homeland,
are found in the lower elevations. This area also
contains a number of other unusual and important
resources, including a high density of petrified wood
and rare and endemic plant species, such as the Higgins
spring parsley and Kane breadroot.
The Buckskin Mountain area, located southeast of the
Vermilion Cliffs and west of the Cockscomb, is a unique
lithological area, rich in rocks from the Triassic
Period and late Paleozoic Era. It also provides winter
range for the renowned Paunsaugunt mule deer herd and
is the location of the Eagle Sink, a stunning sinkhole
where the surrounding limestone collapsed to create an
enormous 160-foot depression. The area also contains
many Ancestral Pueblo cultural sites and provides
access to the primary trailheads used to access
Buckskin Gulch--the longest slot canyon in the United
States, with walls ascending up to 400 feet--located in
the adjacent Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness.
Protection of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National
Monument 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
area remain for the benefit of all Americans.
Reservation of these lands will preserve the living
laboratory within the monument boundaries that will
facilitate significant scientific discoveries for years
to come. The area contains numerous objects of historic
and scientific interest, and it provides world-class
outdoor recreation opportunities, including rock
climbing, hunting, hiking, backpacking, canyoneering,
river running, mountain biking, and horseback riding,
that support a 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
[[Page 57344]]
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; and
WHEREAS, Proclamation 6920 of September 18, 1996,
designated the Grand Staircase-Escalante National
Monument in the State of Utah and reserved
approximately 1.7 million acres of Federal lands as the
smallest area compatible with the proper care and
management of objects of historic and scientific
interest; and
WHEREAS, on three separate occasions the Congress
adjusted the boundaries of the monument--the Utah
Schools and Lands Exchange Act of 1998, Public Law 105-
335, 112 Stat. 3139; title II of Public Law 105-355,
112 Stat. 3247, 3252 (1998); and section 2604 of the
Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009, Public Law
111-11, 123 Stat. 991, 1120--ultimately increasing the
Federal lands reserved for the monument by more than
180,000 acres.
WHEREAS, Proclamation 9682 of December 4, 2017,
modifies the management direction of the Grand
Staircase-Escalante National Monument and excludes
nearly half of the lands reserved in Proclamation 6920,
which include lands containing objects of historic and
scientific interest that Proclamation 6920 identifies
as needing protection, such as portions of Circle
Cliffs and Waterpocket Fold; and
WHEREAS, December 4, 2017, was the first time that a
President asserted that the Antiquities Act included
the authority to reduce the boundaries of a national
monument or remove objects from protection under the
Antiquities Act since the 1976 passage of the Federal
Land Policy and Management Act, as amended (43 U.S.C.
1701 et seq.); and
WHEREAS, I find that each of the historic and
scientific resources identified above and in
Proclamation 6920 are objects of historic or scientific
interest in need of protection under 54 U.S.C. 320301;
and
WHEREAS, I find that the unique nature of the Grand
Staircase-Escalante landscape, and the collection of
objects and resources therein, make the entire
landscape within the boundaries reserved by this
proclamation an object of historic and scientific
interest in need of protection under 54 U.S.C. 320301;
and
WHEREAS, I find that there are threats to the objects
identified in this proclamation and Proclamation 6920;
and
WHEREAS, I find, in the absence of a reservation under
the Antiquities Act, the objects identified in this
proclamation and in Proclamation 6920 are not
adequately protected by otherwise applicable law or
administrative designations because neither provide the
Department of the Interior with the specific mandate to
ensure proper care and management of the objects, nor
do they withdraw the lands from the operation of the
public land, mining, and mineral leasing laws, and so a
national monument reservation is necessary to protect
the objects of historic and scientific interest in the
Grand Staircase-Escalante region for current and future
generations; and
WHEREAS, I find that the boundaries of the monument
reserved by this proclamation represent the smallest
area compatible with the protection of the objects of
historic or scientific interest as required by the
Antiquities Act; and
WHEREAS, it is in the public interest to ensure the
preservation, restoration, and protection of the
objects of historic or scientific interest on the Grand
Staircase-Escalante lands, including the entire
monument landscape, reserved within the boundaries
established by this proclamation;
NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., 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 and
in
[[Page 57345]]
Proclamation 6920 that are situated upon lands and
interests in lands owned or controlled by the Federal
Government to be the Grand Staircase-Escalante National
Monument (monument) and, for the purpose of protecting
those objects, reserve as part thereof all lands and
interests in lands not currently reserved as part of a
monument reservation and that are 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 consist of those
lands reserved as part of the Grand Staircase-Escalante
National Monument as of December 3, 2017, encompassing
approximately 1.87 million acres. As a result of the
distribution of the objects across the Grand Staircase-
Escalante landscape, and additionally and
independently, because the landscape itself is an
object in need of protection, the boundaries described
on the accompanying map are confined to the smallest
area compatible with the proper care and management of
the objects of historic or scientific interest
identified above and in Proclamation 6920.
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,
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.
This proclamation is subject to valid existing rights.
If the Federal Government subsequently 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
the monument through the Bureau of Land Management
(BLM), as a unit of the National Landscape Conservation
System, and in accordance with the terms, conditions,
and management direction provided by this proclamation
and, unless otherwise specifically provided herein,
those provided by Proclamation 6920, the latter of
which are incorporated herein by reference. To the
extent any provision of Proclamation 9682 is
inconsistent with Proclamation 6920 or this
proclamation, the terms of this proclamation and
Proclamation 6920 shall govern. To further the orderly
management of monument lands, the monument will be
managed as a single unit comprising the entire 1.87
million-acre Grand Staircase-Escalante National
Monument.
For purposes of protecting and restoring the objects
identified above and in Proclamation 6920, the
Secretary shall prepare and maintain a new management
plan for the entire monument. The Secretary, through
the BLM, shall consult with other Federal land
management agencies or agency components in the local
area, including the National Park Service, in
developing the management plan. The Secretary shall
provide for maximum public involvement in the
development of that plan, including consultation with
federally recognized Tribal Nations and State and local
governments. In the development and implementation of
the management plan, the Secretary shall maximize
opportunities, pursuant to applicable legal
authorities, for shared resources, operational
efficiency, and cooperation.
The Secretary, through the BLM, shall maintain an
advisory committee under the Federal Advisory Committee
Act (5 U.S.C. App.) with the specific purpose of
providing information and advice regarding the
development of the management plan and, as appropriate,
management of the monument, including scientific
research that occurs therein. This advisory committee
shall consist of a fair and balanced representation of
interested stakeholders, including State and local
governments, Tribal Nations, recreational users,
conservation organizations, educators, local business
owners, private landowners, and the scientific
community, which may include members with
[[Page 57346]]
expertise in archaeology, paleontology, entomology,
geology, botany, wildlife biology, social science, or
systems ecology.
Nothing in this proclamation shall be deemed to enlarge
or diminish the rights or jurisdiction of any Tribal
Nation. The Secretary shall, to the maximum extent
permitted by law and in consultation with Tribal
Nations, ensure the protection of sacred sites and
cultural properties and sites in the monument and
provide access to Tribal members for traditional
cultural, spiritual, 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 and in Proclamation 6920.
The Secretary shall manage livestock grazing as
authorized under existing permits or leases, and
subject to appropriate terms and conditions in
accordance with existing laws and regulations,
consistent with the care and management of the objects
identified above and in Proclamation 6920. Should
grazing permits or leases be voluntarily relinquished
by existing holders, the Secretary shall retire from
livestock grazing the lands covered by such permits or
leases pursuant to the processes of applicable law.
Forage shall not be reallocated for livestock grazing
purposes unless the Secretary specifically finds that
such reallocation will advance the purposes of this
proclamation and Proclamation 6920.
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.
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
eighth day of October, in the year of our Lord two
thousand twenty-one, and of the Independence of the
United States of America the two hundred and forty-
sixth.
<GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT>
(Presidential Sig.)
Billing code 3395-F2-P
[[Page 57347]]
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TD15OC21.007
[FR Doc. 2021-22673
Filed 10-14-21; 8:45 am]
Billing code 4310-10-C
</pre></body>
</html>Indexed from Federal Register on October 15, 2021.
This is legal information, not legal advice. Laws vary by jurisdiction and change frequently. Always verify current law with official sources and consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction for advice on your specific situation.