CHAPTER 5 Findings and Recommendations
FINDING 1:
Faced with the challenges of resiliency and preparedness to climate change, the federal government is seeking collaborative approaches to the identification and protection of historic properties that incorporate equity and the input and participation of parties with special expertise in the historic, cultural, and natural resources affected. Agencies reported the use of collaborative approaches for the identification and protection of historic properties most at risk from climate change. Agencies are already considering impacts to historic properties as an integral part of climate-related planning and implementation. Agency progress reports highlight numerous partnerships that have resulted in training and educational opportunities, adaptation and mitigation grounded in Indigenous Knowledge and input from communities most affected by climate change, and co-management practices that have restored ecosystems and helped make historic properties and landscapes on federal lands better prepared for disasters. Agencies have developed digital tools that are aided by community input to identify properties most at risk from climate change and are working with experts on innovative ways to calculate the embodied carbon of preserved buildings, develop best practices of deconstruction and material salvage, and incorporate green infrastructure to minimize the impacts of flooding and erosion on historic sites. Agencies with federally managed housing have sought approaches and experienced challenges to upgrading housing to make it more energy efficient and resilient to climate impacts. Others have developed or are in the process of developing program alternatives directed toward undertakings responding to climate change. The ACHP’s Climate Change and Historic Preservation Policy Statement and Tribal and NHO Climate Action Plan encourage collaboration. Agencies work best when working together and with State and Tribal Historic Preservation Offices, Tribes, and relevant stakeholders to facilitate information sharing, validate existing guidance, and set standards for building sustainability goals.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
FEDERAL AGENCY REPORTING on their progress over the past three years has demonstrated the substantive ways that agencies are meeting the goals of the “Preserve America” Executive Order, in tandem with the goals of the Administration and their respective agency missions. Through policy, outreach, and partnerships, agencies have shown the ways in which the solutions to many of the challenges our nation faces today intersect with the interests of historic preservation. Solutions that enhance historic property stewardship often also advance the interests of sustainability, equity, and the economy. While some challenges, including funding, staff vacancies, and coordination with State and Tribal Historic Preservation Offices were reported this cycle, as in previous years, agencies have faced new obstacles successfully with established programs as well as innovative tools and partnerships. In general, agency progress reports illustrated that the federal historic preservation program works to the benefit of the American people and the agencies that manage it. With this in mind, the ACHP has identified the following findings, which are accompanied by recommendations on specific actions the ACHP and others can take to address them.
BLM employees ready their inflatable kayaks before floating down the Atigun River in the Brooks Range to monitor known archaeological sites. (Crystal Glassburn/BLM)
» The ACHP should facilitate the sharing of best practices among agencies as part of implementation guidance and outreach for the ACHP Climate Change and Historic Preservation Policy Statement. » Agencies should revisit ACHP guidance regarding the use of the emergency provisions in the regulations, found at 36 C.F.R. § 800.12, for advance planning for emergency undertakings in response to climate change, and consider ways to tailor new and existing programmatic agreements to known and anticipated threats to historic properties. » The ACHP should consider how responses to the ACHP chair’s 2023 request for public comments regarding application and interpretation of the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties can lead to further flexibility in addressing climate change adaptation issues.
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