Investigating the Role of Archaeological Information and Practice in Landscape Conservation Design and Planning in North America

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this article is to discuss the challenges and opportunities for integrating archaeological information in landscape-scale conservation design while aligning archaeological practice with design and planning focused on cultural resources. Targeting this opportunity begins with statewide archaeological databases. Here, we compare the structure and content of Pennsylvania's and Florida's statewide archaeological databases, identifying opportunities for leveraging these data in landscape conservation design and planning. The research discussed here was part of a broader project, which was working through the lens of Landscape Conservation Cooperatives in order to develop processes for integrating broadly conceived cultural resources with natural resources as part of multistate or regional landscape conservation design efforts. Landscape Conservation Cooperatives offer new ways to think about archaeological information in practice and potentially new ways for archaeology to contribute to design and planning. Statewide archaeological databases, in particular, offer transformative potential for integrating cultural resource priorities in landscape conservation design. Targeted coordination across state boundaries along with the development of accessible derivative databases are two priorities to advance their utility.

Spatial Education: Improving Conservation Delivery Through Space-Structured Decision Making

Adaptive management is a form of structured decision making designed to guide management of natural resource systems when their behaviors are uncertain. Where decision making can be replicated across units of a landscape, learning can be accelerated, and biological processes can be understood in a larger spatial context. Broad-based partnerships among land management agencies, exemplified by Landscape Conservation Cooperatives (conservation partnerships created through the U.S. Department of the Interior), are potentially ideal environments for implementing spatially structured adaptive management programs.

NASA-NPS Landscape Climate Change Vulnerability Project (LCCVP) Team Meeting at AMK Ranch

A NASA-funded research team met May 19-22 at the AMK Ranch for a semi-annual team workshop. Participants included: Montana State University – Andy Hansen, Tony Chang, Regan Nelson, Nate Piekielek Woods Hole Research Center – Patrick Jantz, Scott Zolkos NPS Inventory & Monitoring Program – John Gross, Bill Monahan Great Northern LCC – Tom Olliff NASA Ames – Forrest Melton, Jun Xiong Guest – Steve Running (University of Montana) Chef – Jodi Stevens The goal of the project is to demonstrate the four steps of climate adaptation planning in two US Department of Interior Landscape Conservation Cooperatives (LCCs) using NASA and other data and models. Objectives are: 1. Hindcast and forecast future climate and land use scenarios. 2. Assess the vulnerability of ecological processes and key habitat types. 3. Evaluate management options. 4. Design and implement management adaptation strategies. 5. Facilitate decision support.