Presidential Document2023-19346
National Wilderness Month, 2023
Primary source
Metadata and text below are from the Federal Register, a public-domain U.S. government work. Always verify the official published version before relying on it for any legal matter.
Published
September 6, 2023
Signed
August 31, 2023
Issuing agencies
Executive Office of the President
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 88 Issue 171 (Wednesday, September 6, 2023)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 171 (Wednesday, September 6, 2023)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 60879-60881]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2023-19346]
Presidential Documents
Federal Register / Vol. 88, No. 171 / Wednesday, September 6, 2023 /
Presidential Documents
[[Page 60879]]
Proclamation 10616 of August 31, 2023
National Wilderness Month, 2023
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
America's natural wonders are marvels of the world.
People travel across seas and continents to behold the
spirit of this great land embodied by our majestic
mountains, breathtaking deserts, emerald valleys, and
mighty rivers. During National Wilderness Month, we
celebrate the power and promise of our country's
extraordinary natural gifts and renew our commitment to
protecting them for generations to come.
When we conserve our country's landscapes and
wilderness, we do more than preserve their beauty for
our own enjoyment. We safeguard the future of people
who depend on and sustain the land as a way of life--
Indigenous peoples, farmers and ranchers, recreation
businesses, and rural communities. We enshrine
landmarks that identify the places where the history of
our Nation was made. We protect sacred spaces that have
been stewarded by Tribal Nations since time immemorial.
And we mitigate the impacts of climate change to help
make our country more resilient.
A respect for nature's ability to support and enrich
our lives has led my Administration to develop the most
ambitious land and water conservation agenda in
American history. During my first week in office, I
issued an Executive Order establishing the country's
first-ever National Conservation Goal to conserve at
least 30 percent of our lands and waters by 2030. It is
the cornerstone of my ``America the Beautiful''
campaign to support locally led and voluntary
conservation and restoration efforts across the
country. I also signed an Executive Order to protect
America's forests, harness the power of nature in the
fight against climate change, and initiate the first
National Nature Assessment to evaluate the state of our
lands, waters, and wildlife. And with funding through
the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and alongside the
Department of Agriculture, I have created a nearly $1
billion Community Wildfire Defense grant so that
communities can take steps to protect themselves from
the devastation of wildfires.
With the help of critical partners in every sector, we
continue to make strong progress toward these
conservation and climate goals. Together, my Bipartisan
Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act
represent the largest investment in climate and
conservation ever--accelerating the clean energy
economy here at home, protecting communities from
climate impacts, and creating good-paying jobs that
boost our economy. The new National Monuments I have
designated will protect the soaring peaks of Camp Hale
in Colorado, the irreplaceable Avi Kwa Ame in Nevada,
the magnificent Castner Range in Texas, and the sacred
sites and lands that surround the Grand Canyon. We have
conserved the ancient and vast conifers of the Tongass
National Forest; safeguarded the incomparable Bristol
Bay watershed in Alaska; and restored protections for
Bears Ears, Grand Staircase-Escalante, and the
Northeast Canyons and Seamounts National Monuments.
My Administration has protected the Boundary Waters in
Minnesota and Chaco Canyon in New Mexico, and we are
accelerating efforts to restore the Great Lakes, the
Chesapeake Bay, the Everglades, and the Columbia River
Basin. At my direction, the Secretary of Commerce has
begun exploring the designation of approximately
770,000 square miles in the Pacific Ocean,
[[Page 60880]]
an area almost three times the size of Texas, as a new
national marine sanctuary to protect the integrity of
our oceans. The Department of the Interior has also
begun the process of preserving more than 13 million
acres of lands of significant natural and cultural
value in the Western Arctic. And I declared the entire
United States Arctic Ocean off-limits to new oil and
gas development. These landscapes and sacred spaces are
precious. If they are lost, they can never be replaced.
Though these are great accomplishments, I realize we
still have much more work to do to protect our
wilderness. That is why we are continuing to take
ambitious steps to accelerate conservation. We are
coordinating across Federal agencies and encouraging
collaboration with non-Federal partners to better
conserve ecological connectivity and wildlife
corridors. We are also partnering with Tribal Nations,
working together as co-stewards of the lands that are
most precious to them.
To harness the tremendous power of the ocean to help in
our fight against the climate crisis, we published the
first-ever United States Ocean Climate Action Plan, and
the Budget I released earlier this year includes new
funding to ensure our natural areas are accessible to
all Americans. I want to build on legislation I signed
last year that established Wilderness Act protections
for more than 182,000 acres of public lands in Nevada,
so I look forward to continuing to work with the
Congress to advance locally led and locally supported
proposals for protecting our most unique and beautiful
lands and waters.
This National Wilderness Month, we renew our commitment
to protecting our wilderness areas and ensuring that
all their splendor is passed down from generation to
generation of Americans, helping to bridge our past and
our future.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of
the United States of America, by virtue of the
authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws
of the United States, do hereby proclaim September 2023
as National Wilderness Month. I encourage all Americans
to experience our Nation's outdoor heritage, to
recreate responsibly and leave no trace, to celebrate
the value of preserving an enduring wilderness, and to
strengthen our commitment to protecting these vital
lands and waters now and for future generations.
[[Page 60881]]
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
thirty-first day of August, in the year of our Lord two
thousand twenty-three, and of the Independence of the
United States of America the two hundred and forty-
eighth.
<GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT>
(Presidential Sig.)
[FR Doc. 2023-19346
Filed 9-5-23; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3395-F3-P
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</html>Indexed from Federal Register on September 6, 2023.
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