The WHY and HOW of integrating archaeological findings into wildlife management efforts

Summary

The relevancy of archaeology to contemporary social issues has become a topic of concern for many in the discipline. Zooarchaeologists in particular have focused some effort in highlighting how archeological interpretations can assist with wildlife management and conservation biology. While this work helps to amplify the social value of archaeology, the approach to date has been somewhat disparate. In order to implement the vision of integrating archaeological findings to wildlife management and conservation biology, a basic understanding of the appropriate scale and scope of available archaeological data and an avenue for effectively communicating the findings is needed. This paper will outline the potential value added to the management of species in National Parks in the west and provide a framework for integrating relevant findings to natural resource management decisions. A case study that merges archaeological information with the potential for reintroducing bighorn sheep to Lava Beds National Monument will illustrate how the data integration can be useful to those managing wildlife.

SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR courtesy of the Society for American Archaeology and Center for Digital Antiquity Collaborative Program to improve digital data in archaeology. If you are the author of this presentation you may upload your paper, poster, presentation, or associated data (up to 3 files/30MB) for free. Please visit http://www.tdar.org/SAA2015 for instructions and more information.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Preservation, Protection, and Outreach Programs in National Park Service Archaeology

Keywords

Spatial Coverage