*New NPS Chief Anthropologist Named*
Joe Watkins will join the NPS as the new chief anthropologist in May 2013.
This position was last held by Muriel Crespi. He received a BA from the
University of Oklahoma and a MA and PhD in Anthropology from Southern
Methodist University. His doctorate examined archaeologists’ responses to
questionnaire scenarios concerning their perceptions of American Indian
issues. Watkins is currently the Director of the Native American Studies
Program at the University of Oklahoma, and was an Associate Professor of
Anthropology at the University of New Mexico from 2003-2007, and the Agency
Archeologist of the BIA Anadarko Agency 1993-2003. He has been involved in
anthropology for more than forty years.
Watkins has been involved in major anthropological organizations and is
currently on the Board of Directors of the Plains Anthropological Society.
He served on the Board of Directors of the Society for American Archaeology
(SAA) and in numerous capacities within the SAA, including chair and member
of its Ethics Committee and past chair of both the Native American
Scholarships Committee and the Committee on Native American Relations. He
is also past chair of the Committee on Ethics of the American
Anthropological Association, past chairman of the Committee on Native
American Issues of the Register of Professional Archaeologists, a member of
the Indigenous Advisory Committee of the Fifth World Archaeological
Congress held in Washington, D.C. in 2003, and a past member of the World
Archaeological Committee Executive Committee.
Watkins’ current study interests include the ethical practice of
anthropology and the study of anthropology’s relationships with descendant
communities and Aboriginal populations. He has published numerous articles
on these topics as a means of trying to increase the conversation between
Indigenous groups and anthropologists. His books include *Indigenous
Archaeology: American Indian Values and Scientific Practice* (AltaMira
Press, 2000), *Reclaiming Physical Heritage: Repatriation and Sacred
Sites* (Chelsea
House Publishers 2005), and *The Anthropology Graduate’s Guide: From School
to a Career* ( co- authored with Carol Ellick; LeftCoast Press 2011).
*NPS Intermountain Region (IMR) Hires Archeologist as Assistant Regional
Director*
Tom Lincoln has accepted a position as the NPS IMR’s new Assistant Regional
Director for Cultural Resources.
Lincoln is an archeologist with undergraduate minors in biology and
geology; he received his MA in Anthropology from the University of Montana.
He worked in Glacier NP, Rocky Mountain NP, Badlands NP, and Big Hole NB,
before joining the Bureau of Reclamation in 1978. Among other
assignments, Lincoln oversaw the archeology program for the Central Arizona
Project for 18 years and its re-working of Hohokam and Saladoan archeology.
He became Reclamation’s Federal Preservation Officer in 2002 functioning as
the bureau’s policy chief for historic preservation, cultural resources
management, museum property, and paleontology.
Lincoln was a principle in initiating the South Park Archaeology Project
(SPArP), an independent and volunteer oriented research program with a
mission to inventory and describe the archeology of South Park, Colorado,
especially focusing on Paleo-Indian and pre-Clovis occupations. While no
longer officially associated with SPArP, Lincoln continues with his
associate professorships at Regis University and Arapahoe Community College
teaching a variety of classes and guided independent studies in
anthropology, climate change, sustainability and resiliency, and complex
systems theory.
Lincoln joined the Resource Stewardship and Science Directorate on March
24, 2013; he is based in Lakewood, CO.
*CEQ Releases Handbooks on Improving Efficiency of Federal Environmental
Reviews*
Consistent with the goals of President Obama's 2012 *Executive Order 13604 -
* *Improving Performance of Federal Permitting and Review of Infrastructure
Projects*, the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) has released two new
handbooks that encourage more efficient environmental reviews under the
National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Together, the guides will promote
informed Federal decisions on projects that impact American communities and
help agencies improve efficiency, maximize staff resources, and reduce
costs.
The handbooks complement the suite of guidance and memoranda to agencies
that CEQ has issued to reaffirm the NEPA principles of early coordination
and collaboration to promote efficient Federal environmental reviews. By
highlighting ways to take advantage of existing provisions for integrating
NEPA with other planning and environmental reviews, the handbooks will help
agencies avoid duplicative or inconsistent processes and facilitate
quicker, more informed decision-making.
The first handbook, created by CEQ and the Advisory Council on Historic
Preservation (ACHP), provides advice to Federal agencies, applicants,
project sponsors, and consultants on ways to take advantage of existing
regulatory provisions to align the NEPA process and the National Historic
Preservation Act (NHPA) Section 106 review process for maximum efficiency
and public input. Federal agencies have independent statutory obligations
under NEPA and NHPA. For many projects, agencies can use the procedures and
documentation required by NEPA to comply with NHPA Section 106, instead of
undertaking a separate process. The handbook provides a series of roadmaps
for coordination of the two statutes.
In collaboration with the California Governor’s Office of Planning and
Research, CEQ is also releasing a draft handbook on integrating NEPA and
California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) review processes. The guide
provides practitioners with an overview of NEPA and CEQA as well as
valuable suggestions for developing a single environmental review process
that can meet the requirements of both statutes. It will be available for
45 days of public comment to encourage a comprehensive final product that
promotes maximum efficiency.
By integrating NEPA with NHPA Section 106 and CEQA reviews, these handbooks
will encourage efficient processes without adding any new requirements or
sacrificing the effectiveness and transparency of environmental reviews.
To view the handbooks, go to:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/ceq/initiatives/nepa/handbooks
To learn more about the Administration’s efforts to modernize
implementation of NEPA, click
here<http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/ceq/initiatives/nepa/>
.
*2013 NPS Diving Intern Selected*
The NPS Submerged Resources Center, the NPS National Dive Program, and the
Our World Underwater Scholarship Society have announced that Julia Mason,
Alamo, California, is the 2013 NPS diving intern. A graduating senior and a
straight A student from Harvard University, Julia is eager to bring her
interests in conservation education, outreach, and marine protected area
management to national parks.**
"The NPS diving internship continues to be the most sought after of all the
Our World Underwater Scholarship Society internships, and the selection
process was highly competitive," said Dave Conlin, manager of the Submerged
Resources Center. "Every year the process gets better and the internship
gets more applicants."
Julia will have three months to travel throughout the NPS system and work
with National Park Service dive teams doing resource protection, including
cultural resources and monitoring, law enforcement, interpretation and
maintenance work.
*Restoration Begins on the Shenandoah Valley’s Bloodiest Battlefield*
As the 150th anniversary of the Civil War’s Third Battle of Winchester
(Opequon) approaches on September 19, 2014, the Shenandoah Valley
Battlefields Foundation (SVBF), the management entity for the Shenandoah
Valley Battlefields National Historic District, has begun extensive
restoration of the Middle Field portion of the site to restore it to its
1864 appearance.
"The Union XIX Corps advance charged across the historic Middle Field
towards the Confederate line lying in wait in the concealment of the Second
Woods,” says Chase Milner, SVBF Manager of Stewardship. “More than 50,000
men fought in this battle, and over 8,000 were killed or wounded. The
historic Middle Field is arguably the bloodiest piece of battlefield in the
entire Shenandoah Valley and because of that it’s considered as very
hallowed ground."
The SVBF is working with partners at the Smithsonian Institution, USDA’s
Natural Resources Conservation Service, and the unique environmental
“crowdsourcing” fundraising entity
*Ahyayha<http://ahyayha.com/funded-project-va-battlefield-and-wildlife-restoration/>
,* to implement a multifaceted and ambitious historic landscape plan for
this critical battlefield of the Civil War.
Work begins in April to remove heavy-duty invasive brush and shrubs and
will continue throughout the year with native wild grass sowing and an
archaeological investigation with James Madison University and the
Archaeological Society of Virginia. Along with the historic and cultural
importance of restoring and interpreting this critical resource, the Third
Winchester project also plans to realize meaningful environmental benefits.
Re-establishing native warm-season grasses will provide valuable habitat
for the threatened native Northern Bobwhite Quail that once were ubiquitous
across the state. Planting of scattered food plots for quail, deer, wild
turkey, and migratory birds will further sustain other native wildlife.
The Middle Field is part of a larger 575-acre battlefield preserve. An $8.2
million dollar investment has already been made to protect what is now
being managed by SVBF; the Cultural Heritage Plan calls for an additional
$2.2 million for the full restoration and interpretation of the preserve.
Major on-going support has also been provided by the Third Winchester’s
conservation easement holder, the Virginia Department of Historic
Resources, to restore, interpret, and prepare the entire area for community
use.
*By Jeremy Ebersole*
* *
*Workshop Helps Preserve Shared Resources along the Mexican Border*
Tumacácori NHP and Casa Grande Ruins NM hosted an international workshop on
methods of conserving and restoring earthen architecture on March 11-14,
2013.
The model for this year’s workshops was the use of national parks as
classrooms and laboratories for learning and promoting heritage
preservation. The workshops, called TICRATs (Taller Internacional de
Conservación y Restauración de Arquitectura de Tierra), have been held in
the U.S. and Mexico since the early 1990’s. The workshop trained students
and preservation specialists in the construction and preservation of
structures made of adobe (mud) and lime plaster.
Instructors from the NPS and the Instituto Nacional de Anthropología e
Historia (INAH) shared their knowledge in earthen architecture and 22
participants learned to prepare earthen building materials, including adobe
bricks, mud mortar, lime plaster, and paints based on natural pigments and
binders. Participants learned how these materials come together to form an
architectural system, and the methods of preserving these materials once
they begin to deteriorate. This year’s participants included students from
throughout the U.S. and the world (Argentina, France, Japan, Mexico, and
Spain).
Students also visited area heritage sites and spoke with resource stewards
at the NPS Western Archaeological Conservation Center, Presidio San
Augstin, Mission San Xavier del Bac, the Arizona State Museum Conservation
Lab, and the Archaeological Mapping Lab of the University of Arizona.
After the hands-on workshops, the tours engaged students by looking at a
variety of conservation and management issues facing cultural heritage
sites administered by different federal, state, and non-profit
organization.
The workshops are funded by the Mexican American Border Conservation Office
and completed through a cooperative ecosystems study unit agreement with
the University of Arizona’s Drachman Institute and the College of Landscape
Architecture.
*By Alex Lim, Exhibit Specialist, and Jeremy Moss, Chief of Resources
Management, **Tumacácori NHP*
* *
*Presidential Proclamations Establishes Five National Monuments*
On March 25, 2013, President Obama issued proclamations under the
Antiquities Act to establish five new national monuments. Three of the new
monuments are NPS units.
*Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument, Ohio.* The monument will
preserve the home of Col. Charles Young (1864–1922), a distinguished
officer in the U.S. Army who was the third African American to graduate
from West Point and the first to achieve the rank of Colonel. Young also
served as one of the early Army superintendents of Sequoia and General
Grant National Parks, before the establishment of the NPS in 1916. The
national headquarters of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity, of which Col. Young
was a member, made the property available for acquisition by the Federal
government for the purpose of establishing the national monument
commemorating Young’s life and accomplishments. The monument, located in
Wilberforce, Ohio, will be managed by the NPS.
*First State National Monument, Delaware*
The monument will tell the story of the early Dutch, Swedish, Finnish and
English settlement of the colony of Delaware, as well as Delaware’s role as
the first state to ratify the Constitution. The park is comprised of three
historic areas related to Delaware’s rich history: the Dover Green, the
New Castle Court House complex (including the courthouse, Green and
Sheriff’s House), and the Woodlawn property in the Brandywine Valley. The
monument will be managed by the NPS.
*Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Monument, Maryland*
The monument commemorates the life of the most famous conductor on the
Underground Railroad who was responsible for helping enslaved people escape
from bondage to freedom. The new national park, located on Maryland’s
Eastern Shore, includes large sections of landscapes that are significant
to Tubman’s early life in Dorchester County and evocative of her life as a
slave and conductor of the Underground Railroad. The park includes
Stewart’s Canal, dug by hand by free and enslaved people between 1810 and
the 1830s and where Tubman learned important outdoor skills when she worked
in the nearby timbering operations with her father. The national monument
also includes the home site of Jacob Jackson, a free black man who used
coded letters to help Tubman communicate with family and others. The
monument will be managed by the NPS.
*Río Grande del Norte National Monument, New Mexico*
Located northwest of Taos, the Río Grande del Norte contains stretches of
the Río Grande Gorge and extinct volcanoes that rise from the Taos Plateau.
The area is known for its spectacular landscapes and recreational
opportunities – like rafting, fishing and hiking – and serves as important
habitat for many birds and wildlife. The monument is also home to a dense
collection of petroglyphs and extraordinary archaeological and cultural
resources dating from the Archaic Period to the more recent passage of
Hispanic settlers. The monument will be managed by the BLM, which currently
manages the more than 240,000 acres of the monument.
*San Juan Islands National Monument, Washington*
Home to bald eagles, orca whales, harbor seals and other rare species, the
San Juan Islands is a chain of 450 islands, rocks and pinnacles. Located in
Washington State’s Puget Sound, the archipelago provides an opportunity for
visitors, campers, kayakers and birdwatchers to experience the natural
beauty of the undeveloped, rugged landscape. A number of historic
lighthouses are located on the islands, as well as cultural resources and
fossils dating back 12,000 years. The monument will be managed by the BLM.
First exercised by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1906 to designate Devils
Tower National Monument in Wyoming, the authority of the Antiquities Act
has been used by 16 presidents since 1906 to protect unique natural and
historic features in America, such as the Grand Canyon, the Statue of
Liberty, and Colorado's Canyons of the Ancients.
*National Park Service Awards Civil War Battlefield Land Acquisition Grants*
NPS Director Jonathan B. Jarvis announced more than $2.5 million in grants
to help preserve 700 acres of land at 4 of America’s Civil War
battlefields. The grant projects are in Marietta, Georgia; Bentonville,
North Carolina; Cool Springs, Virginia. and Summit Point, West Virginia.
Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Ga.
Marietta Operations Battlefield, 132 acres (Fee Simple)
$2,011,551.00
North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, N.C.
Bentonville Battlefield, 108.47 acres (Fee Simple)
$253,422.50
Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, Va.
Cool Springs Battlefield, 195 acres (Easement – additional funds)
$300,000.00
Jefferson County Farmland Protection Board, W. Va.
Summit Point Battlefield, 264 acres (Easement – additional funds)
$2,187.05
The grants are from the NPS American Battlefield Protection Program (ABPP),
one of more than a dozen programs administered by the NPS that provides
states and local communities technical assistance, recognition, and funding
to help preserve history and create close-to-home recreation opportunities.
Consideration for the Civil War battlefield land acquisition grants is
given to battlefields listed in the National Park Service’s Civil War Sites
Advisory Commission Report on the Nation’s Civil War Battlefields (CWSAC
Report). Funds were awarded based on the property’s location within
CWSAC-defined core and/or study areas, the threat to the battlefield land
to be acquired, and the availability of required non-Federal matching funds.
Congress appropriated nearly $9 million for Civil War battlefield land
acquisition grants in 2012. Applications for the balance of the funds are
accepted at any time. Criteria to consider in the applying for the Civil
War Battlefield Land Acquisition Grants include:
- The LWCF Civil War Battlefield Land Acquisition Grants are awarded
through a competitive process to units of state and local governments.
- Private non-profit groups may apply in partnership with state or local
government sponsors.
- Each grant requires a dollar-for-dollar non-Federal match.
- Grants are available for the fee simple acquisition of land, or for
the acquisition of permanent, protective interests in land at Civil War
battlefields listed in the Civil War Sites Advisory Commission's (CWSAC)
1993 *Report on the Nation's Civil War Battlefields*.
- Higher consideration will be given to proposals for acquisition of
endangered lands at battlefields defined as Priority I or II sites in the
CWSAC report.
- Complete guidelines for grant eligibility and application forms are
available online at: http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/abpp/
*Contact:* Kristen McMasters, Grants Manager, at 202-354-2037
*National Register Program Requests Comments on Identifying, Evaluating,
and Documenting Traditional Cultural Properties and Native American
Landscapes*
The deadline for comments on identifying, evaluating, and documenting
Traditional Cultural Properties and Native American Landscape has been
*extended
to April 2, 2013*. Numerous requests from Tribes,
Federal Agencies, State Historic Preservation offices and other parties
requested extensions of the comment period. The original National Register
memo requesting comments on Traditional Cultural Properties and Native
American Landscapes can be found on the NR website located at:
http://www.nps.gov/nr/publications/guidance/TCP_comments.htm.
*Training Offered on Preservation Planning and Policy Development for
Historic Roads*
The National Preservation Institute in cooperation with the Virginia
Department of Historic Resources is offering a workshop on managing
historic roads in Richmond, Virginia, on May 2, 2013. As an emerging area
of historic preservation, planning and policy for historic roads presents
new challenges for the historic preservation professional. Explore the
current tools and techniques used for the identification, preservation, and
management of historic roads. Learn how to apply transportation policies to
historic roads, balance safety and function with historic preservation
objectives, and build awareness and new constituencies for the legacy of
highway design in the United States.
Dan Marriott, principal and founder of Paul Daniel Marriott + Associates, a
historic and scenic road preservation planning firm specializing in linear
corridor studies, regional planning strategies and analysis, and
author of *Saving
Historic Roads: Design and Policy Guidelines *will be the instructor. The
seminar meets the criteria for programs in the American Society of
Landscape Architects Continuing Education System and ASLA members will
receive 6 learning units each day.
An agenda is available online at www.npi.org. A registration form is
available online at www.npi.org/register.html. The registration rate is
$325.
The National Preservation Institute, a nonprofit organization founded in
1980, educates those involved in the management, preservation, and
stewardship of cultural heritage. The 2013 National Preservation Institute
seminar schedule is available online at www.npi.org. The 2013 NPI News
Release includes the calendar and seminar descriptions
www.npi.org/NewsRelease2013.pdf <http://www.npi.org/NewsRelease2012-13.pdf>.
*Contact: * Jere Gibber, Executive Director, (703) 765-0100
*Archeology E-Gram*, distributed via e-mail on a regular basis, includes
announcements about news, new publications, training opportunities,
national and regional meetings, and other important goings-on related to
public archeology in the NPS and other public agencies. Recipients are
encouraged to forward *Archeology E-Grams* to colleagues and relevant
mailing lists. The *Archeology E-Gram* is available on the *News and Links *
pagewww.nps.gov/archeology/public/news.htm<http://www.nps.gov/archeology/public/news.htm_>
on
the NPS Archeology Program website. NCPE Intern Rachel Haines assisted in
the production of the E-Gram. Thanks, Rachel!
*Contact*: Karen Mudar at [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]> to contribute news
items, stories for *Projects in Parks*, and to subscribe.
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