Legislating the past: Cultural resource management in the U.S. forest service

Abstract

Cultural resource management, commonly called CRM, has emerged in recent years as a popular topic in federal land use programs. Fundamentally, CRM can be used as a paradigm to more effectively manage the diverse resources found on federal lands in the United States. One obvious example of these resources is the physical, archeological artifact. This article addresses cultural resource management on federal lands, and presents the various laws that have been enacted to protect and preserve such resources of the human past. Second, with the U.S. Forest Service as an example, this article describes some of the deficiencies in the current methodology and recommends ways federal agencies can more effectively manage cultural resources.

Key words:

• archeology
• artifacts
• cultural resource management
• federal lands
• preservation