“The continued efforts to tailor Section 106 procedures to the Armed Forces Retirement Home (AFRH) have resulted in a more effective, efficient, and thorough preservation program.”
Agency programs and procedures to protect historic properties: Strides have been made since the last reporting period in 2015 in how agencies protect their historic properties. Agencies have been implementing and refining agency guidance and data management practices (like BLM, FWS, USGS, BOP, NASA, TVA, USIBWC) and/or through internal, cross-departmental preservation or resource-focused working groups (like GSA, DHS, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration [NOAA], BLM). As in the past, the most effective and efficient manner in which federal agencies ensure protection of their historic properties is through proactive management—a combination of continual use and upkeep, condition monitoring, smart resource allocation, information- sharing among stakeholders, and use of staff expertise. Internal agency directives and policy set out how they will carry out these duties, with compliance with Section 106 and NEPA for the most part serving as the driving forces. Smaller agencies report that the identification and assessment of effect provisions in the Section 106 process are their most common protective tools, and they tend to rely more on contractors for their preservation activities than do larger federal agencies. Reporting agencies also cited compliance with the stewardship, permitting, and enforcement provisions of the ARPA, and with the consultation, excavation, and discovery provisions of the NAGPRA, as ways they protected historic properties. Highlights: ›› NOAA’s Federal Preservation Officer (FPO) developed a working group of line offices and legal counsel to look at ways to improve NHPA compliance and develop policies on addressing undertakings with no potential to cause effect. ›› TVA reports that by the end of 2017 it completed eight modules for the entries in the Integrated Cultural Database, that will cover Section 106, Section 110, ARPA, NAGPRA, site protection, site monitoring, Corporate History (the extensive historic photo collection), and reinterment data. ›› The BLM Preservation Board (see Text Box) continues to meet twice a year to, among other tasks, review preservation issues and make recommendations to leadership on policies and procedures, training, and monitor and provide expertise to field offices’ historic preservation programs across the western states.
The BLM Preservation Board exemplifies how a land-managing agency can use an intra-agency working group to improve Bureau-wide consistency in preservation policies and procedures and enable field-to-headquarters communication using existing staffing.The Board is chaired by BLM’s FPO and includes Deputy Preservation Officers from each State Office.The field organization is represented by four officials authorized to make land-use decisions and two field office archaeologists. The BLM Tribal Liaison Officer fills out the Board, bringing the day-to-day, operational staff perspective.Their charge is to review issues and make recommendations to the Director and State Directors about policies and procedures, training, certification of field offices, monitoring of field offices’ historic preservation programs, and responses to public inquiries. In addition, the Board coordinates with the ACHP, NCSHPO, SHPOs, and THPOs.
26 | IN A SPIRIT OF STEWARDSHIP: A REPORT ON FEDERAL HISTORIC PROPERTY MANAGEMENT 2018
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