2013-04-05_PERMIT FILE - C1996083

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STUM 013JFCTIVES / RESEARCH DF,SIG1 FOR CULTURAL AND PALEONTOLOGICAL REsovwvs The purpose of the cultural resources investigation was to identify resources within the survey area. to evaluate these sites' eligibility for listing in the National Register of Historic Places (NRIIP). and to make management recommendations for those sites found to be eligible or potentially eligible. The presence of cultural resources was considered likely due to previously recorded sites in the region. Additionally. historic resources appear in the project boundary on the USGS 7.5 minute quadrangle maps. Due to the lack of recorded fossil findings in the upper Mesaverde, the potential for finding fossils in this member was considered to be very, low. FIELD METHODS The survey was limited by heavy vegetation: ground cover ranged from 80 -to -100 percent overall. A 100 percent pedestrian cultural resources survey of the block areas was made by crews of two to four persons that walked transects spaced at an average of 20 meters apart in areas not restricted by vegetation and steep slopes. Crew members worked from USGS 7.5' series maps. A total of approximately 505 acres was inventoried. Cultural resources were sought as surface exposures and were characterized as sites or isolated finds. A site is the locus of previous human activity (50 year minimum) at which the preponderance of evidence suggests either a one -time use or repeated use overtime. or multiple classes of activities. For example: a) Isolated thermal features such as hearths are to be designated as sites. due to the interpretable function of such utilization and the potential for chronometric and economic data of recovery, b) Single element rock art panels are to be designated as sites due to the interpretable nature of such an event and the potential diagnostic value of the motif, c) Similarly. isolated human burials are to be designated as sites, or d) loci exhibiting ground stone and flake stone in association. An isolate refers to one or more culturally modified objects not found in the context of a site as defined above. Note that this definition makes no reference to an absolute quantitative standard for the site!isolate distinction. For example: a) A discrete concentration of flakes from the same material regardless of the number of artifacts present likely represents a single, random event and is properly designated as an isolate, or b) Similarly, a ceramic pot bust is to be recorded as an isolate, regardless of the number of sherds that remain. All cultural resources that qualified as sites, such as prehistoric open camps, lithic scatters, occupied overhangs/rockshelters, and evidence of historic occupation and use were recorded and evaluated for determining eligibility for nomination to the National Register of Iistoric Places (NRHP) as they were encountered to standards set by the BLM and the OAHP. 9