Using the Past to Inform the Future: Employing Empirical Data to Guide Future Land Management Decisions

Summary

This presentation will explore the opportunity to increase scientific driven data into the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) Section 106 compliance process particularly relating to Bureau of Land Management (BLM) undertakings. The absence of empirical data available to the BLM to analyze how different activities’ development and/or management affect archaeological sites can result in unfounded assumptions and unnecessary complications during project planning and implementation. Using cases studies from BLM Colorado among other states, this presentation will provide the basis for highlighting the need for additional cultural resource impact studies as well as the advantage of a more scientific approach in federal cultural resource management. Federal agencies, such as the BLM, would greatly benefit from additional resource studies that promote a science driven approach to the Section 106 process. This empirical focus will lead to greater transparency and would overall foster better relations within the BLM, and with State Historic Preservation Officers (SHPO), local governments, communities, tribes, and other stakeholders.

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): 20130