Guidelines and Standards for Archaeological Inventory, 5th Edition, Issued

In Reply Refer to: 8100 (NV933) P United States Department of the Interior BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT Nevada State Office P.O. Box 12000 (1340 Financial Blvd.) Reno, Nevada 89520-0006 http://www.blm.gov/nv/st/en.html 10/17/2011 EMS TRANSMISSION Instruction Memorandum No. NV-2012-001 Expires 09/30/2013 To: District Managers and Field Office Managers, Nevada From: State Director, Nevada Subject: Guidelines and Standards for Archaeological Inventory, 5th Edition, Issued This instruction memorandum informs all district and field offices that Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Nevada’s revision of the “Cultural Resources Inventory General Guidelines, 4th Edition, revised” (Guidelines) is complete. The revised Guidelines entitled “Guidelines and Standards for Archaeological Inventory, 5th Edition” is available electronically on BLM Nevada’s external website, as well as internally on BLM Nevada’s Cultural Resources Sharepoint site. Background: BLM Nevada’s Guidelines supplement the BLM Manual Series 8100 and State Protocol Agreement between the Nevada State Office (NSO) and the Nevada State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) in providing policy to guide compliance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA). Among other items, the Guidelines provide technical standards concerning permitting, inventory procedures, and reporting. In addition, the Guidelines provide standards for the use of inventory reporting forms such as the Intermountain Antiquities Computer System (IMACS) forms. The Guidelines were last revised in 1990. Since that time, several laws, regulations, Programmatic Agreements, Instruction Memoranda, and Information Bulletins have been issued that impact the effective use of the Guidelines in complying with Section 106 of the NHPA. These include, but are not limited to, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act and its implementing regulations, amendments to the regulations implementing the NHPA, BLM’s National Programmatic Agreement and the recent revisions to the Nevada State Protocol Agreement, and Instruction Memorandum NV 2011-008 and Information Bulletin NV 2011-009 concerning BLM Nevada’s permitting process. As a result, BLM Nevada State, District, and Field Offices, as well as the Nevada SHPO, agreed on the need for Guidelines revisions. Instruction Memorandum NV-2011-012 was sent by the State Director, Nevada to all District and Field Office Managers on November 30, 2010, requesting comments and suggestions on revisions to the 1990 Guidelines. All District Cultural Resources Leads compiled comments from their staff and provided those comments to NSO in January, 2011. That IM also instructed each District to complete Native American notification/consultation on the revisions, which each District completed. All comments from tribes were sent to NSO as they were received. Additionally, NSO initiated consultation with the Nevada SHPO and received comments in January, 2011. NSO compiled all comments from the Districts, tribes, and SHPO, and in February, 2011, held a 3-day meeting with several BLM District cultural resources leads to produce the first draft revision. This draft revision was then reviewed by the NSO State and Associate State archaeologists to produce a second draft revision. This draft was made available to all BLM Nevada archaeologists prior to the March, 2011, BLM Nevada Cultural Resources Workshop. NSO and District cultural resources staff reviewed the second draft revisions at the Workshop, and comments were incorporated into a third revision. NSO then met in April, 2011, via NetMeeting with another set of BLM District cultural resource leads, which resulted in a fourth draft revision. That draft was sent to all BLM Nevada District and Field Offices in June, 2011, under Instruction Memorandum IM-NV-2011-060. NSO again compiled and incorporated all BLM Nevada District and Field Office comments into a fifth draft revision. NSO sent the fifth revision to the SHPO’s office in August, 2011, for a second official review from that agency. NSO received comments from SHPO in early October, 2011, and the incorporation of those comments resulted in a sixth draft revision. NSO then reviewed the draft one final time, resulting in the seventh, and final, Guidelines revision. The new Guidelines may be accessed under the “Cultural” link through BLM’s external website: http://www.blm.gov/nv/st/en/prog/more_programs/cultural_resources.html. Internally, the Guidelines can also be accessed through BLM Nevada’s Cultural Resources Sharepoint site by following the string: Shared Documents>Guidelines. Instruction: All BLM District and Field Office archaeologists, as well as 3rd party contractor archaeologists, are expected to comply with the Guidelines in the inventory and reporting of archaeological resources. Copies of the revised Guidelines should be made available to contractors prior to approving new Project Authorizations. The revised Guidelines are currently available on BLM’s Cultural Resources Sharepoint site, and will be uploaded onto BLM’s external website soon. Comments and suggestions for improving the Guidelines are welcome at any time. As appropriate, NSO will consider revising the Guidelines further to ensure both efficiency and consistency in the archaeological survey and inventory process. Questions or suggestions should be directed to Bryan Hockett, Associate State Archaeologist, BLM Nevada State Office at (775) 861-6546 or bryan_hockett@blm.gov. Signed By: Rex McKnight Associate State Director Authenticated By: Ellyn Darrah Administrative Assistant