Number of Pages:  23
Approval Date:  September 27, 2005
Planning Cycle: 7 years

Contact Information:

Jo Antonson
Office of History and Archeology
Div. of Parks and Outdoor
    Recreation
550 W. 7th Avenue, Suite 1310
Anchorage, AK 99501-3565
(907) 269-8714; fax (907) 269-8908
E-mail: Jo_Antonson@dnr.state.ak.us
Website: www.dnr.state.ak.us/parks/oha/shpo/stplan.htm

Mission/Vision Statement:
The overall mission of the plan is to achieve supportive public policy and sustainable funding for historic preservation.

Table of Contents:

Introduction
The State Historic Preservation Office
The State Historic Preservation Plan
The Planning Process
Historic Preservation Resources in Alaska
Statewide Factors Affecting Historic Resources
Goals and Objectives
Bibliography
Appendix I. Statewide nonprofit groups and Certified Local Governments
Appendix II. Federal and state historic preservation laws
Appendix III. Glossary

PLAN DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES
Public Participation Strategies:

• Consultation with Alaska Historical Commission members, Certified Local Governments and other local communities with preservation committees, statewide non-profit cultural organizations, local historical societies and museums, and historic property owners;
• Alaska Historical Commission meetings provided opportunity for the public to share their views;
• CLG annual reports provided information on issues and trends facing historic preservation;
• Help Us To Help You: Statewide Questionnaire on Historic Preservation distributed by letter and in the OHA's newsletter to the general public; preservation professionals; local preservation commissions; historical societies; museums; federal, state, and local government officials, including the military; Alaska Native groups; special-interest populations including ethnic communities and the disabled.

Other Plan Development Strategies:

• Alaska Historical Commission oversight and guidance on plan development.

HISTORIC AND CULTURAL RESOURCES
Physical remains of the past; records of the past that encompass oral history, moving images, books, documents, and photographs; cultural resources; historic and archaeological properties, including commercial districts, industrial structures, public buildings, private houses, archaeological sites, historic aircraft, and shipwreck and battle sites; archaeological sites range in date from camps of early North American inhabitants to remains from the Cold War; archaeological sites important to Alaska's Natives; sites associated exploration and settlement, including early settlement, Russian and Euroamerican exploration and settlement; traditional lifeways of Alaska Natives; military and government; industrial, commercial, and economic development, including the mining and oil industries; transportation and communication, including postal service, radio, and satellite communication; intellectual and social institutions, including properties associated with art, architecture, music, literature, drama, art, schools, hospitals, libraries, museums, designed landscapes such as parks, and traditional cultural places; and sites associated with natural history and disasters, including natural landscapes.

ISSUES, THREATS, & OPPORTUNITIES

• Need for a clear statewide agenda;
• Need for greater public awareness and understanding about historic preservation;
• Need to make connections between economics and historic preservation;
• Demolition or neglect of historic properties;
• Lack of economic incentives to stimulate private preservation;
• Need to incorporate preservation in all planning efforts;
• Lack of adequate funding for preservation activities;
• Greatest dangers to archaeological sites are vandalism, natural erosion, and unmanaged development;
• Appropriate restoration of historic buildings and maintenance of their original character is a challenge;
• Over 50 institutions house archival photographs, documents, oral histories, films, and other important records of Alaska's history;
• Over 50 local historical societies, museums, and friends groups are active around the state;
• Increasing participation of Alaska Natives in public preservation programs;
• Decrease in rural populations, leaving empty buildings and unwatched archaeological sites;
• Increasing urban populations contribute to expansion of commercial areas and new subdivisions;
• Increasingly diverse population, with Alaska Native population declining in proportion to the state's overall population;
• Transient population and newcomers offer challenges to preservation community to communicate historic preservation's values;
• Management philosophies for federal, state, and Native lands, comprising the majority of lands in Alaska, affect historic and cultural resource preservation;
• Very little of Alaska's vast lands have been surveyed for archaeological and historic sites;
• Increasing interest in heritage tourism, stimulating downtown revitalization and adaptive re-use of historic buildings;
• Many historic mine structures are incompatible with modern mining needs and technologies;
• Mining activities pose serious threats to archaeological and historic sites;
• Private and post-secondary academic institutions offer courses in Alaska history, archaeology, and anthropology;
• Coordination of public education efforts could reach larger audiences;
• Need to incorporate historic and archaeological resources into public education programs;
• Preservation ethic needs to be embraced more widely;
• Many misconceptions about preservation still exist;
• Cuts in government agency funding reduces public investment in preservation programs and cultural resources;
• Construction of new roads and airports, improvement of old facilities, and clean-up of unused mining, World War II, and Cold War sites threaten cultural resources;
• Tribal and local governments are critical to the success of historic preservation.

1. Foster respect and understanding of Alaska's archaeological and historic resources and promote a preservation ethic.
2. Continue existing partnerships and seek new ones to expand and strengthen the historic preservation community.
3. Expand efforts to identify, study, designate, interpret, and protect or treat significant archaeological and historic structures.
4. Encourage consideration of archaeological and historic resources in the planning and decision making processes of the public and private sectors.
5. Promote historic preservation as an economic development tool and provide incentives to encourage it.
6. Encourage appropriate treatment of historic resources.

1. Foster respect, understanding, and preservation ethic.
   • Interpret archaeological and historic sites;
   • Improve awareness of and access to preservation information;
   • Develop high quality school programs and materials;
   • Develop a viable, coordinated preservation outreach program;
   Increase visibility of preservation through Alaska Archaeology Month and Preservation Month programs.
2. Form new partnerships.
   • Strengthen local preservation efforts;
   • Encourage Alaska Natives to develop strategies to protect their cultural resources;
   • Encourage nonprofits to promote preservation;
   • Foster stewardship of cultural resources by landowners, private individuals and groups, and public agencies;
   • Improve communication among those interested in preservation through emerging technologies;
   • Work with new constituencies such as conservation groups and ethnic populations.
3. Identify, study, designate, interpret, and protect or treat significant resources.
   • Conduct archaeological and historic surveys;
   • Improve the statewide inventory of cultural resources sites;
   • Encourage community involvement in resource identification, documentation, interpretation, and protection;
   • Document properties for the National Register;
   • Strengthen the professional preservation community.
4. Consider resources in planning and decision making.
   • Ensure development projects protect resources;
   • Ensure emergency response laws and plans provide for resource protection;
   • Maintain and enhance community character;
   • Incorporate preservation issues into plans;
   • Encourage state agency stewardship of archaeological and historic resources.
5. Provide incentives.
   • Promote preservation as a successful economic development tool;
   • Seek funding for state revolving fund;
   • Establish local and national tax incentives for archaeological and historic resource preservation;
   • Establish private and nonprofit incentive programs;
   • Support local, state, and national government initiatives for preservation.
6. Encourage appropriate treatment.
   • Promote the Secretary's Treatment Standards;
   • Increase familiarity with building and safety codes that are sensitive to historic preservation;
   • Provide information on maintenance needs of archaeological and historic properties;
   • Promote the use of conservation easements;
   • Encourage design review.

Cooperating/Partnering Organizations:
University of Alaska Fairbanks, University of Alaska Anchorage, Alaska State Library, Anchorage Museum of History and Art; Alaska Anthropological Association, the Alaska Association for Historic Preservation, Alaska Historical Society, Museums Alaska; historic property owners; professional historians, archaeologists, anthropologists, and architects; local historical societies, museums, and friends groups; State Archives, Historical Collection of the State Library, State and Sheldon Jackson museums; Department of Education and Early Development; Department of Fish and Game; Department of Transportation; State Board of Education; federal agencies in Alaska, including the military, the National Park Service; National Trust for Historic Preservation; Arctic Studies Center, Smithsonian Institution; local governments, including Certified Local Governments; Alaska Native peoples.