Creative Mitigation: Archaeological Site Monitoring on Military Lands in Central Alaska

Summary

The creation of a large live-fire training range in the Donnelly Training Area (DTA) of United States Army Garrison, Fort Wainwright (USAG FWA), required Army archaeologists to integrate standard mitigation techniques with a creative new approach. Extensive survey of the entire Battle Area Complex (BAX) target area and the surface danger zone (SDZ) downrange of targets uncovered over 150 archaeology sites. Twenty-nine sites in the target area were excavated and USAG FWA and the Alaska State Historic Preservation Officer developed a creative plan to monitor the condition of sites in the SDZ to maintain a status of "no adverse effects" for the use of the range. Colorado State University’s Center for Environmental Management of Military Lands was contracted to conduct site condition assessments of the 124 sites within the BAX SDZ. Sites are monitored on an annual or more frequent schedule depending on their proximity to target areas and the amount of use the range receives. This paper serves as an update on the successes and challenges of this approach, as well as an example of how training and cultural resource protection can coincide on military lands.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage