In the Eastern US, my shovel testing interval is far tighter than sampling intervals that federal and state soil scientists ever use. Perhaps I can provide soil survey data to NRCS. I wouldn't mind the additional revenue stream. It's just dirt.
Jim Gibb
Gibb Archaeological Consulting
Annapolis, MD
[log in to unmask]
410.693.3847
-----Original Message-----
From: Williams, Scott <[log in to unmask]>
To: HISTARCH <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Fri, Aug 18, 2017 11:45 am
Subject: Re: USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service seeks public comment on draft programmatic agreement
I don't know if NRCS still collects annual data on the number of archaeological surveys done by each state with the number of acres surveyed and the number of sties found, but they used to (a decade or so ago). Reading those state-by-state reports, my fellow archaeologists and I used to be amazed how one state in the west (not AZ) would report doing thousands of archaeological surveys each year, over thousands of acres-- and never find a site. It was because they had "trained" staff doing the "surveys" and not archaeologists.
It became a bad joke- "Guess there were no Indians in the entire state." And no settlers before 1950.
We see the same issue here with other agencies, using staff with a few days of training to do surveys. It doesn't matter (to me) if they aren't doing significance evaluations- if they aren't recognizing or finding sites, the significance issue is moot. And we get people constantly asking us that, if they have a biologist or geologist out doing the survey, why can't they just look for and record the archaeological sites?
I understand NRCS-AZ's position, but I don't think it's a good idea- as Michael noted, you'd expect that from the NRCS admin, but not from archaeologists.
Scott S. Williams
Cultural Resources Program Manager, WSDOT
Ph: 360.570.6651
-----Original Message-----
From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Michael Trinkley
Sent: Friday, August 18, 2017 7:32 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service seeks public comment on draft programmatic agreement
I really wasn't going to get involved - until Dan brought up the point of, " If you don’t need archaeologists to conduct archaeological surveys, do you need biologists to conduct biological assessments? Do you need air and noise specialists, or environmental justice specialists, or HAZMAT specialists?" And I must also agree with the observation that, "this agreement seems to concur with the approach that anyone can do archaeology (no real commitment required) and dovetails with what appears to be an overall decline in scientific and critical thinking."
While I would expect such reasoning from the NRCS bureaucracy, I find it hard to accept from archaeologists.Sorry.
Best,
Michael Trinkley, Ph.D.
Director
Chicora Foundation, Inc.
PO Box 8664
Columbia, SC 29202-8664
803-787-6910
www.chicora.org
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