Wait Wait, Don’t Tell Me: What Have We Learned Over the Past 40 Years and How Do We Address Future Challenges

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Wait Wait, Don’t Tell Me: What Have We Learned Over the Past 40 Years and How Do We Address Future Challenges," at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Over the last 40-plus years, the United States Forest Service (USFS) has conducted extensive archaeological surveys across much of the 193 million acres that it manages in order to comply with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. This work is significant in protecting important archaeological and historical sites from various land-use impacts as well as revealing the rich cultural heritage of the diverse land base managed by the USFS for the public benefit. Over this 40-year period, USFS heritage program managers and archaeologists have developed new survey strategies to incorporate the information learned from past experience as well as to address new demands from changing land-use practices. This session will provide examples of what we learned from these archaeological surveys and how survey strategies have improved. The session will also present new approaches that USFS archaeologists are introducing to address the future challenge of protecting cultural resources from the increased impacts of, for example, climate change.