The Cultural and Historical Resources Technical Advisory Team
met in regular session in Conference Room A at the Pima County
Public Works Center, 201 N. Stone Avenue, Tucson, Arizona on Monday,
May 1, 2000 at 10:30 a.m. Those present and absent were listed
as follows:
Present:
Dr. Paul Fish, Arizona State Museum (Chair)
Dr. Beth Grindell, Arizona State Museum
Mr. Jerry Kyle, Arizona Historical Society
Ms. Susan Wells, National Parks Service
Ms. Marty McCune, Historic Program Administrator, City of Tucson
Ms. Linda Mayro, Pima County Archaeological and Historic Preservation
Office
Mr. David Cushman, Pima County Archaeological and Historic Preservation
Office
Absent:
Mr. Max Witkind, Bureau of Land Management
Mr. Joe Joaquin, Tohono O'odham Nation Cultural Preservation Office
Mr. Peter Steere, Tohono O'odham Nation Cultural Preservation
Office
Ms. Mary Farrell, Coronado National Forest
There were two members of the public present:
Mr. Henry Wallace, Desert Archaeology, Inc.
Mr. Lucas Premo, Graduate Student, University of Arizona.
CALL TO ORDER
The meeting was called to order by Paul Fish at approximately
10:36 a.m.
OLD BUSINESS
2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES FROM APRIL 3, 2000 MEETINGS
Sue Wells noted that she was present at the April 3, meeting and
made some additional recommended changes to the draft minutes.
With those changes, Paul Fish moved to approve the draft minutes
and Beth Grindell seconded the motion. The motion was unanimously
approved.
NEW BUSINESS
UPDATES
Ms. Mayro gave an update on the schedule for preparing the draft
Multi-Species Habitat Conservation Plan due in July.
She then passed out a copy of the Sonoran Desert Conservation
Plan organization chart dated 4/24/00 and explained that several
reports had been received from Statistical Research, Inc. and
that more were expected in the coming weeks. The first report
was on the history of archaeological , historical and ethnographic
research in Pima County and the second will be a report on the
peoples of southern Arizona, past and present. Paul Fish, Sue
Wells and Marty McCune requested copies of the complete set of
research products for their institutions.
David Cushman then spoke to the Team and gave un update on the
Avra Valley subarea presentations that was given before the Steering
Committee on Saturday April 29. He reported that the session went
well.
4. CONSTRAINTS LIST
Mr. Cushman raised the issue of the "constraints" list
meaning a list of places that the team thought to be of such importance
that they should be included in any conservation alternatives
that emerge from the SDCP planning process. He recommend that
the team be conservative in assigning properties to the list and
that the decision should be base on an assessment of the scale
of the loss that would result if the property were not conserved.
This is based on the assumption that some places have higher cultural
and historical value than others, such as the remaining large
Hohokam village sites such as Los Morteros and the Valencia sites.
He argued that loss of these places would have a greater impact
on cultural resources in the county than other places.
Mr. Cushman handed out a list of properties that were identified
as places that should be considered for acquisition and protection
as part of the 1997 Pima County bond initiative. He suggested
that these places would be a good starting point and asked the
team to submit ideas on what else should be included and whether
any properties listed in 1997 should be dropped. He said that
for any property being recommended the county needed to know what
it is, where it is located, its land status, and a brief explanation
of why it is important. He requested input within the next couple
of weeks.
PREDICTING SITE SENSITIVITY ZONES
As a follow up to the discussion from the meeting on April 3,
2000, Mr. Cushman then raised the subject of predicting site sensitivity
zones. He presented to the team an example of one of the subareas
maps, the Tortolita Fan subarea, complete with topographic lines,
major streets, drainages and springs, as well as archaeological
sites. He suggested that maps like this one could be blown up
and used in an exercise that would involve experts in each subarea
marking the maps into different zones of site potential. He asked
for input from the group.
Dr. Fish noted that the site data on the Marana Mound complex
did not appear on the Tortolita Fan map and that this needed to
be corrected.
The team as a whole suggested that areas that have already been
surveyed needed to be added to the maps.
Mr. Cushman observed that the result of the expert input could
be used with other data on development to identify places where
sensitivity is high but where the loss is high too, such as in
the City of Tucson. Marty McCune suggested that we not write off
the Tucson area as being lost but rather threat to cultural resources
be evaluated on a continuum.
Dr. Fish thought that use of the maps as suggested would work
for the purposes of recording expert opinion on site sensitivity.
Mr. Cushman Suggested the following experts for each subarea:
Avra Valley Alan Dart
Altar Valley Henry Wallace
Upper Santa Cruz Dr. Carla Van West
Middle Santa Cruz Dr. Bill Doelle
Tortolita Fan Dr. Paul Fish
Cienega-Rincon Micelle Stevens
San Pedro Valley Dr. Jeff Clark
Western Pima Co. Gail Hartman
The list of experts was approved by the team although it was not
put to a vote. There was then discussion on how to proceed with
the meeting. Two ideas were discussed. Go to each expert individually
and give them a map of their subarea and ask them to submit their
marked map within a certain time, or to bring the experts together
in one room for a limited time period. The second option was recommended
as the best way to proceed. Dr. Fish and Mr. Wallace thought that
bringing everyone together for a two or three hour meeting would
be sufficient.
Mr. Cushman said he would set up the meeting for later in May
and that it would likely be in the afternoon from 2:00 p.m. to
5:00 p.m. There was some additional discussion on when would be
best and Monday, May 22, 2000 was recommended.
Ms. Wells and Ms. McCune recommended inviting the Team members.
Ms. Wells recommended creating three zones of site sensitivity.
She suggested stratifying the landscape into high, medium and
low sensitivity zones and this would be better than a simple two
part presence/absence stratification. Mr. Cushman agreed as did
others.
Dr. Fish also suggested that John Madsen be invited to attend
the meeting given his considerable archaeological experience in
the county.
There was no further discussion.
6. NEXT MEETING
Next meeting will be on Monday, June 5, at 10:30 a.m. at the Pima
County Public Works Center Conference Room A.
7. ADJOURNMENT
As there was no further business to come before the Cultural and
Historic Resources Technical Advisory Team, the meeting was adjourned
at 12:30 p.m.
(Notes taken by David Cushman, Pima County Cultural Resources
Office)