Field Office Cultural Resources Surveys

1. Field Office Cultural Resources Surveys Tips for NRCS field offices

2. Background • NRCS takes into account cultural resources involving small undertakings by using field office personnel to determine whether cultural resources are present. • This is a time and cost efficient system. It is appropriate to the workings of NRCS, and an effective method of taking cultural resources into account.

3. What is a cultural resource? • It is usually more than 50 years old. • It can be a site, structure, object, or district that relates to the past. • Federal laws protect “significant” sites, which means sites that are important to our past.

4. Who in the field office can do the cultural resources survey? Only those employees that have completed the the multi-Module cultural resources training course can perform the procedure. Field office staff indentifying a buried archeological site during training

5. When is cultural resources work done by field office personnel? • Field offices handle the cultural resources work for small undertakings. • When the field office feels uncompfortable because the cultural resources work is too large, or too complex, help should be obtained from experts such as those in the state office. Some undertakings are so large or complex that the assistance of a specialist should be requested.

6. Avoid • You discover the presence of a cultural resource in the area of potential effect (APE) while scoping the undertaking. • The simplest solution to your cultural resource responsibilities is to move the undertaking away from the site, or change the practice so that it will not have an effect on the cultural resource (e.g. seeding a cultivated field rather than building a terrace). Human remains are almost always avoided, including Indian burial mounds.

7. When you discover a cultural resource and do avoidance • Accurately locate the cultural resource’s position on a map. • Determine the boundary of the site. This is very important because avoidance assumes that the boundaries are known. • Plan to stay at least 100 feet away from the boundaries of the site. • Contact the state office, which shall determine if avoidance has taken place.

8. What happens when you find a cultural resource that you won’t avoid? • The state office is notified. • The undertaking is no longer a field office undertaking. • The state office will involve a cultural resources specialist and will decide whether to avoid, discontinue assistance, or mitigate. • The state office will handle any consultation that is necessary. Flint cores, flakes, and retouched flakes

9. Getting in over your head? • There is a cultural resources specialist in the state office. Contact this individual if you have questions or need assistance. Some situations are complex. It is better to get professional assistance than make a mistake. • If you feel uncomfortable doing cultural resources checks in certain situations, contact the cultural resources specialist who will provide advice, field assistance, or additional training.

10. First step in a field office survey • Using the internet, check the map showing whether there are known sites in the section you are working in. • http://maps.gis.iastate.edu/isites/ • If there is a recorded site, contact the state office which will provide you with an exact location.

11. Check historic atlases • Your local library should have old atlases and plat books for your county and state. They are frequently found in the genealogy section. • Photocopy the relevant pages and keep them in the field office. • Referencing these maps saves on field work, and will include cultural resources not found on the internet map. • Field Offices are required to establish such files. 1875 State Atlas

12. Second step in the survey • You will need to do a field survey. Most cultural resources are not recorded, consequently checking the internet map is not adequate by itself. • Both the internet and field check should be noted on the CPA-52. Archeological site eroding from the slope Field office personnel doing a field survey

13. Field surveys must be systematic • The most common mistake in surveying the area of potential effect (APE) is to search the APE haphazardly. • Walk the area in a systematic way thereby assuring that you have covered all of the APE. • The pattern you choose to walk is up to you. Do this! Not this!

14. What if I can’t see the ground? • Recently cultivated ground is easy to survey, but what do you do if the ground is obscured by vegetation? • If it is covered by crops, time your visit to the seasons when the crops aren’t covering it. • You can do shovel tests and screen the soil (this is a last resort). • If the ground is in grass and has been cultivated in the past, then you can disk it (this is a last resort). • Don’t use techniques such as disking or shovel tests on ground that has a low probability of having significant cultural resources (e.g. PSA or hydric soils). Vegetation may totally obscure the surface of the ground

15. Shovel Tests • Each Field Office has been provided an archeological screen with ¼ inch mesh. • Shovel test pits should be approximatel 40 cm square, and as deep as the plow zone. The contents of the pit should be screened. • Chop the soil up in the pit (not in the screen) before sieving. That will preserve the screen. • Shovel testing should be done only when vegetation obscures the ground surface.

16. Caution: Federal Property • There are special laws that apply to Federal Land. • Before working on Federal Land contact the state office to make sure that proper procedures are being followed. Normally, the land owning Federal Agency is the lead Federal Agency. • The Archeological Resources Protection Act (ARPA) could lead to individuals in the field office being fined if cultural resources are damaged and procedures were not followed. Corps of Engineers Fish and Wildlife Service National Park Service

17. Document what you do • Briefly document on the proper form what you did to check for cultural resources. • If questions arise later, or if there is a quality assurance check, the agency will request that the field office provide this documentation. CPA-52 CPA-6

18. Other relevant PowerPoint Presentations • More information on recognizing cultural resources can be found in the PowerPoint presentation, “Cultural Resources Indicators.” • More information on recognizing where on the landscape cultural resources are most common can be found in the PowerPoint presentation, “Archeological Sites and High Probability Locations.” • More information on human remains can be found in the PowerPoint presentation, “How to take Burials, Burial Mounds, and Human Remains into account.” • For information on situations specific to small dams can be found in the PowerPoint presentation, “Surveying Structures.” • “How to Identify an Alluvial Fan” provides information on this landform type, and the necessity of contacting the State Office when working on a fan.

19. Survey efficiently • It is important to know what you need to survey and what you don’t need to survey. • You need to survey areas that will both 1) be disturbed and 2) have potential to have significant cultural resources. • You don’t need to survey areas that 1) are not going to be disturbed or 2) have no potential to have significant cultural resources.

20. Going APE • The APE (Area of Potential Effect) is the area of the undertaking where there is both a potential for significant cultural resources and disturbance. • The APE is often smaller than the property rights area. • Remember, borrow areas and access roads need to be considered for the APE. APE Property rights area In this case, the property rights area is the entire wetland while the APE is only the area disturbed by the dikes

21. Working with the APE can get hairy • On rare occasions, the APE may extend outside the property rights area. • An undertaking may alter the “view shed” which may be important to the significance of a cultural resource. This is rare for our agency which does undertakings that fit in with the overall agricultural landscape and are normally of low relief. Large structures have potential to do this. • An undertaking may have indirect effects that can reasonably be foreseen. For example, a pond is built that will draw many fishermen. An abandoned historic log cabin is nearby, that will not be damaged by the construction of the undertaking. However, the increased public access will probably result in vandalism to the log cabin and this needs to be taken into account. Contact your cultural resources specialist for assistance. Construction of this dam might not directly damage these mounds However, increased visitor traffic may need to be taken into account as an indirect effect

22. Disturbing Information • Disturbance is a factor that must be present to initiate a field office cultural resources survey. • Disturbance is vertical as well as horizontal. • If the ground is already cultivated, and you are not going deeper than the plow zone, then you will not disturb anything that is not already disturbed. • If you are going deeper than the plow zone, then a survey may be needed. Some practices do not go below the existing plow zone Some practices such as terraces do go below the plow zone

23. No Collection Policy • All artifacts that you encounter in the field belong to the land owner. • Under ordinary circumstances, all artifacts are left in the field. • Exceptions are permitted if the artifact is of unusual scientific value, the landowner grants permission, and you have discussed it with the cultural resources specialist in the state office.

24. What happens when you find a cultural resource? • Unless you avoid a cultural resource or adopt a non ground disturbing practice, the undertaking becomes a state level undertaking. The state office will decide the disposition of the undertaking. • You discover a cultural resource that is outside the APE. Notify the landowner of the site location. Should the landowner wish the site to be recorded in the State Archeological Site Data Base, direct the landowner to contact the Office of the State Archaeologist in Iowa City for instructions and assistance in recording the site. NRCS will provide a brochure to the landowner.

25. Summary • Survey where there will be disturbance and where a significant site could be located. • Familiarize yourself with those topographic areas likely to have cultural resources. • Utilize the internet map and old atlases. • Systematically survey the APE. • Document the results on the proper form. • Contact the state office if you locate a cultural resource or before you work on Federal Land.