Education and Enforcement: How the Bureau of Land Management is Confronting Looting on Public Lands in Utah

Summary

Looting of archaeological resources on public lands has been an issue throughout the United States for over a century, and Bureau of Land Management (BLM)-administered lands are no exception. Looting can take many forms, ranging from a visitor looking for a souvenir to intense, large-scale, and intentional desecration of sites for personal profit. Looting issues can be exacerbated by the limited on-the-ground resources of federal agencies that manage millions of acres. The proactive actions the BLM is taking against looting has resulted in increased Archaeological Resources Protection Act investigations, the recovery of looted artifacts, and educational campaigns to curb unintentional, destructive behaviors. The BLM-Utah’s dual approach of education and enforcement illustrates the active role the BLM is taking to reduce looting. The BLM-Utah manages large collections of archaeological artifacts recovered from law enforcement investigations and prosecutions, is currently determining best practices for the long-term curation of recovered artifacts, and is developing anti-looting centered interpretation of the collections. Site stewardship programs, Project Archaeology curriculum, and the Respect and Protect education campaign are major initiatives the BLM-Utah and its partners are using to educate the public about responsible public land use and citizen stewardship of archaeological resources.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 22496