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,
June 12, 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
Mr. Peter Steere, Tohono O'odham Nation Cultural Preservation
Office
Mr. Joe Joaquin, Tohono O'odham Nation Cultural Preservation Office
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
Ms. Mary Farrell, Coronado National Forest
There were three members of the public present:
Dr. Jonathan Mabry, Desert Archaeology, Inc.
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
10:35 a.m.
OLD BUSINESS
2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES FROM MAY 1, 2000 MEETING
Jerry Kyle moved to approve the draft minutes and Marty McCune
seconded the motion. The motion was unanimously approved.
NEW BUSINESS
UPDATES
David Cushman gave an update on the SDCP subarea reports; he finished
the report on the Avra Valley in mid April and was working on
the Upper Santa Cruz subarea due in early May. As before, these
reports will be used as the basis of a PowerPoint presentation
to the Steering Committee.
Mr. Cushman also informed the Team that the NCPTT modeling proposal
had been turned down. The explanation that he received from the
grant reviewer (Dr. Mark Gilberg) was that the proposal was well
received and went all the way through the review process only
to be denied due to a lack of funding. Apparently, a portion of
the grant money was utilized for other purposes within the National
Park Service, leaving enough to fund only two proposals in the
grant category to which Pima County had applied. It was Dr. Gilberg's
opinion that under normal circumstances, the county's proposal
would have been funded. When asked if the county should re-apply
he said that he did not know if it would be worth the county's
time unless the NCPTT solved its funding problems. Mr. Cushman
said that he would contact the NCPTT in July to see if circumstances
had changed sufficiently to justify reapplying.
Paul Fish reported that he had inquired about funding through
the National Science Foundation and learned that their Environmental
Studies funding program would require a bigger proposal involving
the other technical teams.
Linda Mayro said that Pima County is pursuing a possible funding
sources through the Army Corps of Engineers.
Ms. Mayro then went on to give her update on the where the county
is in the SDCP planning process. She mentioned the proposal to
create an Ironwood Forest National Monument and passed out a map
showing the proposed boundaries of the monument. Ms. Mayro reported
that this proposal is moving forward. The Las Cienegas National
Conservation Area, however, is languishing in committee due to
objections raised by private property rights advocates. The next
step in the SDCP planning process is to prepare an Environmental
Impact Statement (EIS) as required under the National Environmental
Policy Act. This is a federal responsibility that must be met
by the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) that will involve
Pima County.
Ms. Mayro reported that in July the county intends to prepare
a status report that will be used to provide background information
on preserve design alternatives. The Habitat Conservation Plan
process dovetails with the EIS process, which will be fast tracked
over a 12 to 18 month period. In that time, land panels that are
being set up now will review data and findings and make comments.
She closed her report by saying that consultation with the Advisory
Council on Historic Preservation on how the USFWS will comply
with the National Historic Preservation Act will happen in the
near future.
4. REPORT ON THE SITE SENSITIVITY WORKSHOP
Mr. Cushman gave the team a report on the findings of the site
sensitivity workshop for eastern Pima County. He explained the
process by which experts in the archaeology of different subareas
in eastern Pima County were brought together for a one day workshop
held on May 24th at the Arizona State Museum. The expert team
consisted of the people that were recommended during the May 1
meeting with one exception, Gail Hartman was unable to assist,
and her replacement, Adriene Rankin, was also unable to join the
experts at ASM. Different arrangements will have to be made for
Western Pima County. The purpose of the workshop was to develop
maps showing where Pima County could expect to find archaeological
sites on the landscapes based on expert opinion. Each expert was
assigned a subarea and then asked to stratify the landscapes into
three different zones of site frequency: High, medium and low.
This he explained was guided by the assumption that different
parts of the landscapes have been heavily utilized by human population
in the past, that some areas were used to a lesser degree, and
that other areas were hardly used at all. As such, different frequencies
of archaeological sites should be expected depending on their
location across the landscape.
Mr. Cushman explained that each expert was provided a large laminated
map of their subarea that included information on the location
of known archaeological sites and surveys, along with contour
lines (where available), water sources and modern roads. Additional
data on the distribution of major vegetative zones was also provided.
Using these data, and information that individuals brought to
the workshop, the experts created the zones using different colored
magic markers. After the exercise, the zones were digitized and
entered into the county's GIS data base. Mr. Cushman presented
the team with a print out of eastern Pima County showing the results
of the modeling exercise and gave several examples of how this
kind of information could be used to assist in conservation planning.
Dr. Fish asked whether the sensitivity model will be used by the
modelers in California in developing the Decision Support model
for the Preserve Design. Linda Mayro responded by saying yes.
CONSTRAINS LIST.
Mr. Cushman then went on to the next item on the agenda dealing
with the constraints list. He explained that in the context of
the SDCP constraints are "must conserve" areas and that
the team needed to prepare a listing of places that are so important
that their loss would significantly detract from the history and
culture of Pima County. He handed out to the team a compilation
of comments and recommendations that were prepared during the
1997 Pima County bond initiative and suggested that this be used
as a starting point.
Mr. Cushman further recommended that those places that have already
been listed on the National Register of Historic Places be automatically
included as constraints because they had met the National Park
Service's criteria for listing. He then asked the team to think
about what other places should be considered as constraints.
Marty McCune wanted to know about threat and whether this should
be considered in the listing. Mr. Cushman said that it was important
to know about threats but that first we should build a preliminary
listing and then examine the issue of threat and make conservation
recommendations accordingly.
Linda Mayro said that the team will be making policy recommendations
in two areas: 1) what to buy/save; 2) how to achieve preservation
through regulatory compliance.
Henry Wallace suggested preparing a list and then circulating
it for review with the reviewers ranking the suggestions for their
importance.
Jonathan Mabry suggested another way of doing this by asking people
to make their own lists and then determine where the duplicates
occur as a simple measure of where there is consensus.
Dr. Fish asked about complexes of sites that cover large areas.
Ms. Mayro thought that the listing should include these places
and noted that concept of preserving site complexes was consistent
with the landscape approach to conservation being taken by the
SDCP.
Mr. Cushman noted that time was short and that a list needed to
be developed as soon as possible. He said that the list will begin
by using the properties identified in 1997 as part of the Pima
County bond initiative but that the team members need to add to
this. He asked for their recommendations by the end of the week.
6. CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL RESOURCES ELEMENT REPORT
Mr. Cushman then turned to the last item on the agenda and
presented an outline of the cultural and historical resources
element report. There was discussion on the sections dealing with
the loss, protection, and threat to cultural resources.
Ms. McCune argued that urban areas like Tucson should not be written
off as having no preservation value simply because they have high
levels of disturbance. Mr. Wallace pointed out that in situations
like Tucson's this makes what is left all the more important.
Mr. Cushman agreed and explained that he didn't intend to focus
so much on loss of resources as on the effect of urbanization
on overall integrity on the subarea level.
Ms. Mayro pointed out that the goal of the SDCP is to conserve
resources by saving land that is still intact where possible.
In the urban areas, where integrity is likely to have been degraded,
the county will recommend policy changes to ensure preservation.
Dr. Mabry asked where the SDCP will enhance preservation and Ms.
Mayro responded by saying that the EIS will identify the alternatives
for conservation to be considered in the future. The cultural
and historical resources element report will provide a preliminary
analysis and recommendations to be followed up later in the planning
process.
7. NEXT MEETING
The next scheduled meeting will be on Monday, July 24, at 10:30
a.m. at the Pima County Public Works Center Conference Room A.
ADJOURNMENT
As there was no further business to come before the Cultural and
Historic Resources Technical Advisory Team, the meeting was adjourned
at 12:38 p.m.
(Notes taken by David Cushman, Pima County Cultural Resources
Office)