Great Basin restoration initiative

By Michael P. Drews

Subjects: Antiquities, Forecasting, Cultural property, Restoration ecology, Archaeological site location

Description: "The Great Basin Restoration Initiative (GBRI) is a multi-state, multi-agency, state, local, and federal initiative focused on 'restoration' of the sage/pinion/juniper biome within 75 million acres of the Great Basin. To advance restoration efforts, ecological planning boundaries were created and multiple-use management goals, including those pertaining to cultural resource management and protection were, or are in the process of, being developed ... One way to facilitate management and planning is to develop and test cultural resource distribution models that predict site density and distribution for planning purposes ... The model should be a basis for understanding the history and prehistory of the GBRI landscape and how humans have positioned themselves on the landscape over time ... The goals of this study are ... more managerial than anthropological. Our charge was to examine where archaeology is most likely to be found, and when found, where it was more likely to be an impediment to Great Basin Restoration Initiative land use goals"--Page I-1.