Of those statistics that Will generated, it shows that just over half of
the professional archaeologists in the forest service are over 50 years
old.  The FS is facing loosing a majority of its professionals in the next
5-10 years due to retirement.

The forest service has always been a little weird with how it classifies
its archaeologists.  As a temp on the Idaho Panhandle in 1977/78/79. ALL of
us temps were classified as "Social Science Technicians".  We all had a
bachelor's degree and various amounts of field and lab experience.  I was
told directly by the woman who was in charge of the personnel section there
at the time, the reason was so that we would not have any time in as
professional or technical series archaeologists in the case we got on as
permanent employee".  In the fall of 1977, I got onto the "mid-level
roster" about 2 months before they abolished it.

Again, to the point of "What is an archaeologist"?  As an undergraduate at
the Univ. of Nebraska, Lincoln, from Sept. 72 to Dec. 75, I was told by
both my first and second advisors (Warren Caldwell and Dale Henning), that
I would not be able to get a permanent job in the field of archaeology
without a Master's Degree.  It is hard to consider yourself a professional
archaeologist if that is not what you do for a living.  So the concept of
needing a minimum of a Master's Degree has been around a long time.  Of
course as a graduate student at the Univ. of Idaho, Moscow, my entire
income came from archaeology so I did consider myself an archaeologist.  My
second year on the Idaho Panhandle, Mike Moratto was there as the Forest
Archy in 1978 until July 79.  After the 1978 field season, on my evaluation
form, he said I was a "promising pre-professional".  I respected the guys
opinion a great deal and did not know weather or not I should feel praised
or insulted.  (Working for him was like getting paid to take a semester of
archaeological coursework).

Smoke.


Smoke (Michael A.) Pfeiffer, RPA
Ozark-St. Francis National Forests
605 West Main Street
Russellville, Arkansas 72801
(479) 968-2354  Ext. 233
e-mail:  [log in to unmask]

It is easier to get forgiveness than permission.