The Issue

Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area will be one of the first sites to initiate a cultural landscape inventory on a large, parkwide scale. This broad outlook will offer a better perspective on the landscape and will help cultural and natural resource managers recognize where there are overlapping interests and concerns.

The loss of open space is an important issue for cultural resource managers at the park, because open fields are a character-defining feature of the cultural landscape. The park began an agricultural leasing program in the early 1980s to help maintain this open space, but resource managers must work closely with farmers to ensure that the program does not negatively affect the natural environment and to protect subsurface archaeological artifacts.