2009-08-24_REVISION - C1982056 (4)

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Inventory began with review of aerial photos and a reconnaissance of the project area to identify these settings and features of a type sensitive to the effects of subsidence. This reconnaissance was accomplished by vehicle on existing county, ranch, and mine roads that criss- cross the subsidence area. As a result of this, all cliff bands and unstable slopes were examined, with focus on cliffs themselves, and on the areas immediately above the cliffs or slopes (that might be lost to slumping or collapse) and below (that might be covered by slumped or collapsed materials). All historic structures were examined and recorded as appropriate. Because of the slight potential of channel erosion along Grassy Creek, and tributaries, MAC inventoried a strip out to 150 meters wide along each side of all blue-line drainages in the project area beginning at the edge of the modern floodplain and extending away from the creek. The goal in these areas was to inventory any terrace or toe-slope setting within the 150-m strip. In the case of narrow drainage bottom areas, the 150 m distance would have investigators well up into upland terrain, which is considered to be a non-sensitive setting so the field director exercised professional judgement about where and where not to inventory. All inventory area boundaries were mapped. These inventory corridors extended along drainages throughout the subsidence area (estimated to be about 37.2 miles). Finally, all ridge crests and hill tops were inventoried. The areas selected for inventory were covered to Class III standards (see maps, Appendix D). Approximately 4291 acres were covered by new Class III inventory. Together with acreage covered by previous inventories (264.7 acres), and areas not surveyed due to slope of >30' (113.2 acres) this constitutes about 54% of the entire subsidence area. More importantly, the inventory covers essentially all areas where sites would be found in settings likely to be altered by subsidence. When cultural material was encountered, the immediate area was intensively examined to determine the nature and extent of the resource. MAC defines sites as five or more artifacts; or a feature, structure, or trail; or any combination of these elements meeting OAHP criteria in a discrete location that is believed to represent the locus of patterned human activity. An isolated find is defined as four or fewer artifacts without evidence of, or potential for additional cultural materials or features in the immediate vicinity. An isolated find can also represent a single event or many pieces of a single artifact. Once defined, resources were recorded on OAHP isolated find forms. Handheld GPS units were used to determine isolated find locations. All GPS readings were georeferenced to UTM meters and NAD 27 (WAAS corrected to 2-5 m accuracy). Artifacts were analyzed in the field. MAC analyzes artifacts by type and materials. Lithic debitage is further characteri zed by placement in the reduction sequence. Primary flakes have 100 % cortex on the dorsal surface and tertiary flakes have no cortex on the dorsal surface. Secondary flakes fall between these two extremes. Diagnostic artifacts and tools were analyzed and drawn in the field. No artifacts were collected. INVENTORY RESULTS During this inventory, MAC recorded or updated a total 37 sites (Appendix C, Maps 1 and 2). Table 4 details all of the sites documented during this project. Inventory resulted in discovery and documentation of 18 new sites and the visiting and updating of an additional 19 previously recorded sites. Of the total 37 sites, 25 are prehistoric, nine are historic, and three have both prehistoric and historic components. Of these, 24 have recommended evaluations of "not eligible" 15