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VI. MITIGATION MEASURES 6.1 GENERAL DISCUSSION OF MITIGATION MEASURES • There are several levels and types of mitigations measures that can be taken. These are described below. 6.1.1 Test Excavations Following an inventory of cultural resources, test excavations are conducted at each site that will be directly affected by the project. It should be general practice to test every site, since surface collections do not always accurately reflect what lies beneath the surface. Also, test excavations provide information concerning the depth of deposits at the site and give some indication of what kinds of cultural occupations are contained within the site. 6.1.2 Controlled Surface Collections Gridding off the surface of a site into squares and collecting from all squares or a random sample of the squares can provide useful informa- tion concerning the localization of activities carried out at the site. Whether or not controlled surface collections should be made depends on • the amount of material on the surface and the nature of the site. 6.1.3 Extensive Excavations The test excavations and controlled surface collections should provide enough information to decide whether the site is significant enough to warrant extensive excavation or preservation. Determination of the importance of a site does not depend purely on the amount of material the site contains but on the kinds of material and their relevance to the problems or hypo- theses being investigated. Establishing a chronology is usually the primary goal when investigating an unknown area, although site relationships and their internal activity structures are equally important subjects of inquiry. 6.1.4 Preservation of sites If the project can be modified so that a potential adverse impac~ can be eliminated, the site in question can then be preserved for investi- gation by future generations of archeologists. Excavation of a site effectively destroys the site. Future archeologists may have improved •