Protecting America’s Natural and Historic Treasures


THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary


For Immediate Release January 12, 2000



PRESIDENT CLINTON AND VICE PRESIDENT GORE:
PROTECTING AMERICA’S NATURAL AND HISTORIC TREASURES

President Clinton, in a trip today to Grand Canyon National Park, will sign proclamations creating three new national monuments – the Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument and the Agua Fria National Monument in Arizona, and the California Coastal National Monument. The President also will sign a proclamation expanding Pinnacles National Monument in California. The newly protected areas are already federal land and, beginning today, will be managed with the overriding purpose of preserving their unique natural, scientific and historic features.

A Century of Land Stewardship. Among the tools available to the federal government to preserve America’s natural heritage is the Antiquities Act, which authorizes the President to create national monuments on federal land to protect “objects of historic and scientific interest.” The Act was passed by Congress in 1906 and first used by President Theodore Roosevelt who, precisely 92 years ago today, created the Grand Canyon National Monument -- the core of what later became Grand Canyon Park. In the years since, almost every President has protected natural and historic sites under the Act. These lands, some of which Congress later designated as parks, include Death Valley, California’s Muir Woods, Alaska’s Glacier Bay, Wyoming’s Grand Tetons, portions of Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, New Mexico’s Carlsbad Caverns, and Utah’s Bryce and Zion canyons. Today, more than 100 monuments in 24 states and the Virgin Islands protect some 70 million acres, about 10 percent of all federal lands.

New Monuments for a New Millennium. A year ago, President Clinton requested Interior Secretary Babbitt to report to him on unique and fragile federal lands in need of protection. After extensive study and close consultation with local citizens, state and local officials, and members of Congress, the Secretary recommended the following lands, which the President is today protecting as monuments:

The overriding purpose in managing these lands will be protection of the unique natural, scientific and historic features identified in today’s proclamations. Valid existing rights, such as water rights and prior mining claims, will be maintained. Other existing uses, such as grazing and hunting, generally will not be affected (although hunting will no longer be permitted in the Pinnacles expansion area). At the Arizona monuments, the current prohibition on off-road vehicles will be made permanent. No new mining claims may be filed and, in some areas, the proclamations reserve water rights for the federal government.

What's New - January 2000

African American History Month

Protecting America’s Natural and Historic Treasures

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President Clinton Unveils Millennium Initiative to Promote Delivery of Existing Vaccines in Developing Countries and Accelerate Development of New Vaccines


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