Back to Three Forests Coalition Home

Bureau of Land Management. 2000. Strategic paper on cultural resources at risk. Bureau of Land Management, Washington, D.C. 18 p. http://www.blm.gov/heritage/docum/00atriskpaper3.pdf

RELEVANT TO:	CULTURAL RESOURCES
	PALEONTOGAL RESOURCES
	ROADS/OFF-ROAD VEHICLES

DESCRIPTION

This Strategic Paper was developed to draw attention to the fact that BLM's cultural properties are increasingly at risk, to highlight some reasons why this is so, and to begin to focus management attention on the problem.

MAJOR FINDINGS

Much of the cultural resource base is seriously threatened. This "Great Outdoor Museum," which has the potential to document the full sweep of western prehistory and history, will soon lack sufficient integrity and representativeness to relate anything more than minor anecdotes.

Although BLM has done a good job of complying with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act, it is failing to actively manage the resources entrusted to it. Section 106 compliance efforts have resulted primarily in finding cultural properties and avoiding them, or allowing them to be destroyed after mitigation. While this is a form of preservation, it is not the same as long-term management of cultural properties for the full range of values they contain.

Natural and human-caused threats are reducing opportunities for:

• interpreting sites,
• providing long-term access to properties valuable to Native Americans and other ethnic groups,
• promoting and facilitating scientific research, and
• conserving properties for the future.

Increasing visitation to the public lands is resulting in intentional and inadvertent damage through:

• collection (looting),
• vandalism,
• surface disturbance, and
• other depreciative behavior

Increasing land use authorizations for rights-of-way, mining, public facilities and other legitimate and necessary uses of the public lands continue to result in an ever-diminishing cultural resource base. With every year that passes, the diversity of cultural resources is reduced, and more of the ability to tell the story of the public lands is lost.

A recent Office of Inspector General (OIG) audit identified several critical weaknesses in BLM's cultural resource management program:

• The OIG found lack of a long-range plan to survey areas for the purpose of understanding human behavior and use of the land.
• The OIG also found BLM deficient in other proactive efforts including stabilizing sites, interpreting sites, and preparing historic contexts, project plans and National Register nominations.
• Not surprisingly, the OIG found that BLM cultural heritage staff spends 70 to 99 percent of their time on Section 106 compliance work, as opposed to proactive cultural program work.

A major reason for the deficiencies cited by the OIG is the flat staffing level maintained by BLM's cultural program for the past 25 years.

A new poll conducted by Harris Interactive for the Society for American Archaeology,

found there is large scale support for laws protecting archaeological resources (96 percent) and use of public monies to preserve archaeological sites (80 percent). The poll found that most people (88 percent) have visited museums exhibiting archaeological materials, while 37 percent have visited an archaeological site. Clearly, this widespread interest in archaeology will lead to continued impacts to archaeological sites from legitimate and illegitimate uses, particularly as the west becomes more urbanized.

E XTERNAL T HREATS

• Uncontrolled use. Uncontrolled use is the most immediate and pervasive threat to cultural resources on BLM lands.
• Authorized use. Along with increasing recreational use, land use authorizations for rights-of-way, mining, public facilities, and other legitimate and necessary uses of the public lands harm resources.
• Agency funding. Levels are low and declining.

I NTERNAL T HREATS

• Critical weaknesses. As mentioned above in OIG audit.

QUESTIONS RAISED FOR THE THREE FORESTS

1. How much of your cultural resource staff time is spent on Section 106, as opposed to more proactive measures with a long-term preservation goal?
2. Are your cultural resource programs adequately staffed?
3. Do you have any idea how many people are visiting "backcountry" cultural sites each year?
4. How are you planning to address the loss of these resources?

RELEVANCE TO FOREST MANAGEMENT

1. These resources need the commitment from managers to hire adequate staff and fully develop proactive cultural resource management plans with a focus on long-term preservation.
2. Are you willing and able to forge partnerships and working arrangements with volunteers and archaeological organizations, and with other agencies?