Site Stewardship Matters: Comparing and Contrasting Site Stewardship Programs to Advance Our Practice

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Site Stewardship Matters: Comparing and Contrasting Site Stewardship Programs to Advance Our Practice" at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In 2014, the initial site stewardship survey was conducted to gather information from the known site stewardship programs, located at that time primarily in the West. Since then, more site stewardship programs have emerged and more are starting to organize. The second site stewardship survey was launched in the spring of 2022 to update and expand the original study. This session presents papers from the various organizations demonstrating their own affordances and constraints. The session will summarize findings from the 2022 survey and premier a video that links the program together.

Other Keywords
Cultural Resources and Heritage Management • Public and Community Archaeology • site stewardship • stewardship • Archaeological Monitoring • Cultural Resource Management • Volunteers • National Parks • Cultural Heritage and Preservation • Archaeological Site Stewardship

Geographic Keywords
United States of America (Country) • North America (Continent) • North America • United Mexican States (Country) • Department of Martinique (Country) • Republic of El Salvador (Country) • Department of Guadeloupe (Country) • Cayman Islands (Country) • Antigua and Barbuda (Country) • Turks and Caicos Islands (Country)

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-9 of 9)

  • Documents (9)
Documents
  • California Archaeological Site Stewardship Program (CASSP) (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Beth Padon.

    This is an abstract from the "Site Stewardship Matters: Comparing and Contrasting Site Stewardship Programs to Advance Our Practice" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. There are many ways to organize and administer site stewardship. We highlight some characteristics of California site stewardship and we discuss why they matter. CASSP is provided by Partners for Archaeological Site Stewardship, a private, nonprofit organization. Because CASSP is not a...

  • Defining Site Stewardship: Origins and Our Family Tree (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Sarah Miller.

    This is an abstract from the "Site Stewardship Matters: Comparing and Contrasting Site Stewardship Programs to Advance Our Practice" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The main work areas of cultural site stewardship are easy to identify: access to authentic sites for assessment, repeat visits to heritage sites, a database to track changes in those sites over time, and volunteer training partnered with professional archaeologists. However, the “why”...

  • How Texas Volunteers Protect Community Heritage (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Rebecca Shelton.

    This is an abstract from the "Site Stewardship Matters: Comparing and Contrasting Site Stewardship Programs to Advance Our Practice" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Although there are many professional organizations practicing cultural heritage preservation, there is a group of dedicated volunteers who work tirelessly to protect their cultural heritage in Texas. For over 38 years, the Texas Archeological Stewardship Network has assisted the Texas...

  • A Plan to Revive a Failed Stewardship Program (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Melissa Zabecki.

    This is an abstract from the "Site Stewardship Matters: Comparing and Contrasting Site Stewardship Programs to Advance Our Practice" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Site stewardship looks different in every state based on how the archeology programs are organized. Public archaeological networks, archaeological surveys, SHPOs, state archaeologist offices, academic departments, and volunteer organizations are connected in infinite configurations...

  • State of Site Stewardship (or Lack Thereof) in Colorado (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Rebecca Simon. Rachel Egan. Harold Henke.

    This is an abstract from the "Site Stewardship Matters: Comparing and Contrasting Site Stewardship Programs to Advance Our Practice" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Colorado’s State Historic Preservation Office and Office of the State Archaeologist (OSAC) share the same building and staff, but site stewardship of archaeological sites is not consolidated in the same manner. In the summer of 2020, OSAC conducted a survey to better understand...

  • Thinking of Starting a Stewardship Program? Lessons Learned from the National Site Stewardship Network Survey 2022 (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Samantha Rubinson.

    This is an abstract from the "Site Stewardship Matters: Comparing and Contrasting Site Stewardship Programs to Advance Our Practice" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Over the last 15 years, there have been several surveys of cultural site stewardship programs. None, however, reach the scale of the 2022 National Site Stewardship Network Survey, which included over 30 programs across the US and one in Scotland. This provided an opportunity to...

  • Use It or Lose It: How to Activate Public Stewards to Protect Archaeological Sites (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Elizabeth Hora. Ian Wright. Matt Podolinsky. Lexi Carson.

    This is an abstract from the "Site Stewardship Matters: Comparing and Contrasting Site Stewardship Programs to Advance Our Practice" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In 1996, the SAA enshrined Stewardship as Principle No. 1 for a reason: without stewards of the archaeological record, there is no hope for its long-term preservation. Many of us are satisfied with our own roles as site caretakers, but in Utah, it was not enough. Repeated and dramatic...

  • VAMPing Up Stewardship in the National Parks: Preliminary Lessons from the Volunteer Archeological Monitoring Program (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Lexie Lowe. Amy Roache-Fedchenko. James Nyman. Margaret Wilkes.

    This is an abstract from the "Site Stewardship Matters: Comparing and Contrasting Site Stewardship Programs to Advance Our Practice" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. From 2021–2022, the Northeast Archeological Resources Program (NARP) began partnering with five National Park units to pilot a new initiative: the design and facilitation of a region-wide volunteer archeological site monitoring program. Working with park staff and stakeholders at the...

  • Variations on a Theme: Expanding Site Stewardship (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Wanda Raschkow.

    This is an abstract from the "Site Stewardship Matters: Comparing and Contrasting Site Stewardship Programs to Advance Our Practice" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Site stewardship programs enlist volunteers to monitor for and report disturbances at archaeological sites. The majority of stewards are older, often retired, with flexible schedules that allow them to visit remote sites on a regular basis. In order to expand participation, and to...