Wilderness Fires and Heritage Resources by Neil Weintraub South Kaibab Zone Archaeologist Kaibab National Forest

What are Heritage Resources? Currently there are more than 60,000 heritage resources recorded in the Southwestern Region. Many of these sites are of great importance to Southwestern Indian tribes including, Hopi, Zuni, Navajo, Hualapai, Havasupai, Yavapai, Apache and Paiute whose ancestors once lived in the forests. Heritage sites hold important cultural, educational and scientific values for many Americans, and contain clues for understanding how the landscapes and cultures of the Southwest came to be as they are today.

Rock Art Rock art, either petroglyphs (pecked) or pictographs (painted) are vulnerable to fire. If there is time, clearing vegetation from these sites can minimize fire effects.

Artifact Scatters Artifact scatters are most vulnerable to impacts from direct fire fighting efforts, especially bulldozer lines. Artifact scatters are most vulnerable to impacts from direct fire fighting efforts, especially bulldozer lines. They also can be altered by high intensity fires. They also can be altered by high intensity fires.

Prehistoric Structures Prehistoric pueblos and other surface features are most vulnerable to impacts from direct fire fighting efforts, such as bulldozer lines.

Rock Shelters Rock shelters preserve perishable materials such as roof beams, arrows, corn cobs and sandals which are not normally preserved in open air sites.

Traditional Cultural Values. Sweat lodges, hogans and gathering areas for special plant resources are also vulnerable to wildfire.

Combustible Heritage Resources For obvious reasons, cabins and railroad grades are vulnerable to fire. If there is time, crews and archaeologists can dig fire lines to try to minimize fire effects.

Getting Heritage Help! Hopefully, Dispatch calls local red-carded archaeologists. If no local archaeologists are available, the resource advisor should request at least two to four (for small fires) and upto 6 to 8 for larger ones. The Resource Advisor should be able to provide Off-forest archaeologists maps of site locations and survey coverages. The resource advisor should ensure coordination between the local archaeologists and fire archaeologists.

Wildland Fire Use Prior to implementing wildland fire use under the standards in the 2005 guide, local units must have ensured compliance with NEPA, NHPA, and ESA requirements… Therefore, to implement fire-use, a Forest must have a Programmatic Agreement in place with the State Historic Preservation Office. This will consist of the agreement and an approved strategy plan for the fire-use process Wildland fire will be used to protect, maintain, and enhance resources and, as nearly as possible, be allowed to function in its natural ecological role…

Heritage Resource Planning/ GIS Archaeologists arriving will want survey and site location maps availbable as soon as possible. They will want to know how sites are marked in the field. They should identify a unique flagging scheme for heritage resource site protection.

Locating Archaeology Sites Fire sensitive heritage layers

Priorites During the Pumpkin Fire 2000, crews wrapped the Historic Kendrick Lookout Cabin with Fire Shelter Material.

Tribal Concerns Bar Fire – crews found Navajo Sweatlodge in the Upper Basin during Stage I and took protection measures prior to archaeologists arrival

Fire Camps All Fire camps should be surveyed for heritage resources – Forest should identify potential fire camps and have them inventoried. Camps become muddy and trucks can damage resources.

Morning Briefing Archaeologists should attend all morning briefings and identify sensitive areas. The Resource Advisor should ensure that Heritage Resources are prioritized in the daily Incident Action Plan.

Communication with Crews Archaeologists should brief crews in their division about the types of heritage resources that might be encountered. Crews can be invaluable in helping protect heritage resources.

Dozer Lines Bulldozer lines have the greatest impact on heritage resources. It is essential that archaeologists and dozer operators work together to avoid heritage resources.

Safety Zones Safety Zones are areas of high impact. They should be inventoried for heritage resources ahead of time, if at all possible Known sites can be marked ahead of time in some cases.

Hand Lines Depending on the Forest and the type of fire, hand lines may also need to be surveyed. Hand lines can also be used to create fire breaks within heritage sites with minimal effects.

Other Protection Measures

Not so desirable effects

What We Learned   Worth the time to organize maps and plan of attack.   Attend all morning briefings.   Give heritage messages to crews while in camp.   Important to retain heritage marking so that sites can be avoided during rehabilitation phase.