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The 2011 Preserve America Progress Report Produced by U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management Cultural Resource Management Program Washington, DC September 2011 Suggested citation: BLM cultural resource management program. 2011. The 2011 Preserve America Progress Report. Department of the Interior. Bureau of Land Management, Division of Cultural, Paleontological Resources, and Tribal Consultation, Washington, DC. Production services provided by: Bureau of Land Management National Operations Center Information and Publishing Services Section P.O. Box 25047 Denver, CO 80225 BLM/WO/GI-11/010+8100 The 2011 Preserve America Progress Report September 2011 Table of Contents I. Executive Summary ........................................................................................................... 1 II. Background ....................................................................................................................... 3 III. Overview of the Cultural Resource Managment Program .................................................. 5 IV. The BLM Budget ............................................................................................................ 11 V. The BLM’s Cultural Resource Management Program Statistics Update ........................... 21 VI. Updates to Program Policy and Procedures ...................................................................... 27 • BLM Tribal Consultation Outreach ........................................................................... 27 • Revision of the BLM Programmatic Agreement ......................................................... 28 • Oil and Gas Leasing Reform ...................................................................................... 29 VII. Heritage Education .......................................................................................................... 31 VIII. Exemplary Partnerships ................................................................................................... 39 • Youth Project Partnerships .......................................................................................... 39 • Tribal Partnerships ..................................................................................................... 45 • Heritage Tourism Partnerships ................................................................................... 49 • Data Sharing Partnership ........................................................................................... 55 References ................................................................................................................................... 59 Appendicies ................................................................................................................................. 62 Appendix A: List of Acronyms ..................................................................................................... 62 Appendix B: BLM Cultural Resource Management Program Fact Sheet (FY 2008-2010 Data) ................................................................................................. 63 The 2011 Preserve America Progress Report iii I. Executive Summary Section 3(c) of Executive Order 13287 on “Preserve America,” signed by President George W. Bush on March 3, 2003, requires each federal agency with real property management responsibilities to prepare a progress report every 3 years by September 30 on identifying, protecting, and using historic properties in its ownership. The BLM is to make the report available to the Secretary of the Interior and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP). The ACHP’s April 2011 “Advisory Guidelines Implementing Executive Order 13287, Preserve America” provides a framework for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) “2011 Preserve America Progress Report.” This report covers fiscal years (FYs) 2008, 2009, and 2010 and emphasizes the BLM’s cultural resource management (CRM) program’s achievements. These include the BLM’s initiative to assess and improve its tribal consultation, especially under cultural resource authorities; the BLM’s initiative to update its national programmatic agreement to improve processes of Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA); and the BLM’s exemplary tribal, youth project, heritage tourism, and data sharing partnerships. The BLM manages more than 245 million surface acres of public land and 700 million acres of subsurface mineral estate, more land than any other agency. The BLM has a multiple-use mission to manage the public lands in a manner that protects the quality of scientific, scenic, historical, ecological, environmental, air and atmospheric, water resource, and archaeological values and provides opportunities for outdoor recreation, while recognizing the nation’s need for domestic sources of minerals, food, timber, and fiber. The BLM’s CRM program is faced with the unique challenge of ensuring identification, protection, and use of historic properties in a manner consistent with the BLM’s multiple-use mandate. “The 2011 Preserve America Progress Report” provides updated information on BLM activities mentioned within Sections 106 and 110 of the NHPA. Through FY 2010, more than 21 million acres have been surveyed for historic properties (8 percent of BLM land), with an average of 855,387 acres surveyed annually from FY 2008 through FY 2010. The majority of the inventory work is funded by land use applicants and performed by one of the more than 700 consultants permitted by the BLM. In FY 2008, 16,450 projects triggered a literature search at a minimum, and 9,947 projects triggered an intensive Class III field inventory. In FY 2010, this work dropped to 10,840 and 5,831 respectively. Cumulatively, more than 328,000 cultural properties have been The 2011 Preserve America Progress Report 1 recorded in surveys on BLM-administered surface lands concern. The BLM continues to educate American through FY 2010, and more than 4 million sites are children, families, and teachers about their rich heritage estimated to exist. resources through the heritage education program. The program reached 64,000 individuals per year from Between FY 2008 and FY 2010, the BLM determined FY 2008 through FY 2010. The BLM also actively more than 33,000 cultural properties eligible for investigates violations of the Archaeological Resources the National Register of Historic Places (National Protection Act (ARPA) and Native American Graves Register). During the same period, the BLM added Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). 12 National Register registrations, containing 302 individual contributing properties, and also added From FY 2008 through FY 2010, the BLM engaged one national historic landmark. In FY 2010, the in an extensive outreach to tribes to enhance tribal BLM placed 471 more properties under some form of consultation efforts, especially under cultural protection than in FY 2007. From FY 2008 through resources authorities, and advance government-to- FY 2010, there were 1,032 new signs, 309 new gates or government relationships. Through partnerships, the fencing, 851 stabilization actions, and 969 maintenance BLM advanced youth stewardship and engagement activities completed. An additional 2,468 properties in resource protection, strengthened BLM-tribe were assigned some form of administrative protection, relationships, improved cultural resources data such as closure, withdrawal from mineral leasing, management, and furthered heritage tourism or designation as an area of critical environmental opportunities. 2 The 2011 Preserve America Progress Report II. Background Section 3(b) of Executive Order 13287 on “Preserve America,” signed by President George W. Bush on March 3, 2003, directed federal agencies with real property management responsibilities to review their regulations, policies, and procedures for compliance with Sections 110 and 111 of the NHPA and to make the results of the review available to the secretary of the agency and the ACHP by September 30, 2004. Section 3(c) of the executive order requires that each agency prepare a progress report on identifying, protecting, and using their historic properties by September 30, 2005, and every third year thereafter, and make the report available to the ACHP and the secretary of the agency. The ACHP then prepares a report on the state of the federal government’s historic properties and their contribution to local economic development and will submit their next report to the President in February 2012. In the BLM’s initial September 2004 report, the BLM described its multiple-use mandate and the vast expanse of public land it administers; the number, diversity, and condition of the cultural resources it manages, including museum collections in internal and nonfederal repositories; the regulations, policies, and procedures under which it manages its cultural resources, including the national programmatic agreement and state-specific protocols under which the BLM complies with NHPA Section 106 responsibilities; the challenges confronting the agency in managing its cultural resources and the extraordinary ways in which the BLM meets these challenges; the sources of internal and external funds the BLM applies to protect, study, and use its resources; and the heritage tourism opportunities and economic benefits that the BLM’s cultural resources provide. The BLM’s September 2005 progress report expanded on the BLM’s public outreach, education, tourism, and other partnership activities and updated the BLM’s progress

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