[Source: Michael Clancy, Arizona Republic] -- The Bureau of Land Management is failing to protect archaeological sites on land it manages throughout the West, according to the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Chronic funding and staff shortages imperil thousands of sites where early Americans once lived, says a trust report called "Cultural Resources on the Bureau of Land Management Public Lands: An assessment and needs analysis."The report was released this week, and trust President Richard Moe singled out three Arizona monuments for special attention in a speech in Denver. Grand Canyon-Parashant, Vermilion Cliffs, and Agua Fria national monuments are at risk, Moe said. "Looting and vandalism are major problems" at Agua Fria, Moe said, "but even more alarming is the huge rise in off-road vehicle use, which increased tenfold in...those same four years. These large and very mobile vehicles scar the landscape, kill plants and wreck archaeological sites, many of which haven't been adequately studied, since the monument doesn't have a full-time archaeologist on staff."
Michael Taylor, BLM deputy state director of resources, said the allegations are not true. He said Agua Fria has had a full-time archaeologist, Connie Stone, since the monument was established in January 2000. He also denied that off-road vehicle use has been a problem because those vehicles are restricted to specified routes in the monument, he said.
Diana Hawks, in charge of planning for the land-management bureau in the Arizona Strip, also said Moe got some of the specifics wrong in his speech. No additional roads would be added in Grand Canyon-Parashant or Vermilion Cliffs, she said. Instead, roads would be removed. But she and Taylor agreed that the bureau is being forced to do more with less money and that surveying vast swaths of land has been difficult. "We might not have overwhelming budgets, but that is a fact of the times," Taylor said. "All land-management agencies have a challenge with the responsible use of public land in areas of burgeoning growth."
[Note: To read the Republic's sidebar article on this topic, click here. To read Moe's speech in its entirety, click here.]
