Archaeological Survey Feasibility of Postharvest Units within the Coast Range

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Coast Range in Western Oregon is characterized by deeply incised canyons and a climate that promotes rapid growth and diverse communities of vegetation. Due to these characteristics, it is difficult to conduct archaeological investigations within the Coast Range. This problem is further exacerbated by a shortage of staff and lack of field opportunity due to a global pandemic that has left a backlog of unsurveyed postharvest timber units within the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde reservation lands. Some of these units have not been visited for years, and have seemingly lost their window of opportunity of feasible survey. This study characterized postharvest units to determine the feasibility of conducting survey and to ascertain the existence and timing of a window of opportunity for survey following harvest. To this end, vegetation density and height were measured with, and compared to, ease of access and ground visibility within postharvest units completed up to six years prior. Results indicate that there is a window of opportunity that starts closing two years after harvest. Starting around year five, postharvest environmental conditions start to approach pre-harvest levels as rapid growing species are replaced with woody vegetation.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36788.0