SRARP Archaeological Compliance-Fiscal Year 2002

Archaeological survey of Site Use Permit Application and Timber Compartment Prescription projects by SRARP staff continued through FY02 according to procedures outlined in 1990. During FY02, archaeological survey was conducted on 2,237 acres for 18 field surveys (Figure 1), resulting in the excavation of 2,979 shovel test pits (STPs). Altogether, 97 new and previously recorded sites were investigated during FY02. For most of these sites, adequate information was not obtained, based on the level of survey sampling conducted, to allow National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) eligibility determinations. As these sites are threatened by future large-scale undertakings, the SRARP will conduct the appropriate level of archaeological investigation to resolve eligibility determinations. Finally, a total of 28 isolated artifact occurrences was recorded during FY02 surveys.

Over the past nine years, the SRARP has conducted compliance survey according to a predictive locational model, as established in the Archaeological Resource Management Plan, for archaeological sites. This Management Plan was developed in agreement with the US DOE-SR, the SCSHPO, and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. The predictive model has proven thus far to be a scientifically sound and efficient method with which to locate and manage archaeological resources on the SRS. Additionally, the locational model is a cost-effective means of conducting survey, especially in these austere times of federal government financial reductions. For these reasons, the development of predictive models is encouraged by regulatory guidance to federal landholders who manage archaeological resources on a daily basis.

However, in 1998 the SCSHPO requested that the SRARP use intensive survey methods (i.e., systematic survey coverage on a 30-m grid) on a routine basis to evaluate the efficacy of the predictive, locational model. Under this agreement, intensive survey methods have been applied to select Site Use Applications and Timber Compartment surveys through the current fiscal year. The data collected to date have been evaluated and used to make initial refinements in the existing locational model. Continued evaluation of the locational model will continue annually with the use of intensive survey on select Site Use projects (i.e., those projects that are not related to United States Forest Service-Savannah River [USFS-SR] activities where site avoidance is not possible) and at least ten percent of all Timber Compartment surveys, given time and personnel.