Monitoring sites: a citizen's role
Federal archaeologists in southeast Utah are responsible for more recorded sites than they could visit in a lifetime. Trained volunteers working under agency programs help close that gap.
Published 2 minute read
A single BLM field office in canyon country can hold records for many thousands of archaeological sites and employ only a few archaeologists. Most sites go years between official visits. Damage from looting, vandalism, careless camping, cattle or erosion can sit unnoticed until a crew happens by. Site stewardship programs exist to shorten that silence.
What a steward does
A site steward is a volunteer assigned by a land management agency to watch a small number of specific places over time. On each visit the steward checks the site against its existing record, takes photographs from the same points as before and fills out a standard form. Anything new goes back to the agency: a fresh hole, a moved stone, graffiti on a wall.
The value comes from repetition. One visit is a snapshot. Ten visits over five years show whether a site is stable, eroding or being dug, and give an archaeologist evidence to act on.
What it is not
Stewardship is not a license to explore. Stewards go where they are assigned, not to places they have heard about. They do not collect, repair walls, brush away dirt or move artifacts back into place, since even helpful handling destroys evidence. They keep locations to themselves.
Most programs also tell stewards plainly not to confront anyone. Enforcement belongs to rangers and other law enforcement officers.
How the programs work in Utah
The BLM’s St. George Field Office has run a site steward program since 2003. What BLM Utah is building now, with a nonprofit partner, is a statewide heritage stewardship program, so that volunteers in every field office work to one set of standards. In San Juan County that work runs through the Monticello Field Office.
The word heritage is deliberate. A steward’s list can include traditional cultural places that matter to tribes, historic cabins and trails, and fossil localities, alongside archaeological sites. Volunteers range from students and retirees to families and tribal members with ties to particular places. Each one signs a code of conduct. Stewards record what they find on each visit, with photographs and notes, and pass the reports to the land managers.
Expect any program to ask for:
- Training in recording standards, photography, site etiquette and how to handle sensitive features, including burials.
- A commitment of time, usually several visits a year to the same places, often for years.
- Confidentiality about every location a steward learns, since those locations are protected information.
Reporting damage
Anyone who sees fresh digging or vandalism on public land in southeast Utah can report it to the BLM field office or the county sheriff. Note the date, time and what was seen, photograph from a distance if that is safe, leave the scene as it is and follow no one.
Damage of this kind is a federal crime. Under the Archaeological Resources Protection Act, excavating, removing or defacing an archaeological resource on federal or Indian land without a permit can bring a fine of up to $10,000 and a year in prison. Where the value of the resource and the cost of repair exceed $500, the maximum rises to $20,000 and two years, and a second conviction can bring $100,000 and five years. Excavation permits under the Act go only to qualified researchers through the BLM’s archaeology program.