
NPS-28: CULTURAL
RESOURCE MANAGEMENT GUIDELINE
A. The Planning Process
Planning is a formal decision-making process, dynamic and continuous, to
ensure that the missions of the National Park Service are accomplished.
This requires that a number of interests, including those of cultural
resource management, be considered. Effective planning identifies
conflicting interests early and facilitates resolution of conflicts.
Planning includes a statement of mission, the definition of objectives,
the identification of issues and opportunities, the collection and
analysis of data, the development and evaluation of alternatives, and
the selection of a preferred alternative. (For more details see the
Planning Process Guideline [NPS-2].)
Statement of Mission

Definition of Objectives

Identification of Issues and Opportunities

Data Collection and Analysis

Development of Alternatives

Evaluation of Alternatives

Selection of Preferred Alternative
The goal of cultural resource planning in the national park system is to
identify and preserve park cultural resources and provide for their
appreciation by the public. It strives to integrate cultural resource
concerns into broader NPS planning processes, to avoid or minimize harm
to cultural resources, to identify the most appropriate uses for
cultural resources, and to determine the ultimate treatment
(preservation, rehabilitation, restoration, reconstruction/reproduction)
or deliberate neglect or destruction for cultural resources. Development
of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) helps planners identify and
protect cultural resources while addressing other park concerns.
Planning responsibilities extend beyond cultural resources that relate
to a park's establishing legislation or interpretive needs. Under
Sections 106 and 110 of the National Historic Preservation Act, federal
agencies must establish programs to identify, evaluate, and nominate to
the National Register of Historic Places eligible properties under their
control and manage such properties with due consideration for
preservation of their cultural values. Under this mandate, planning
responsibilities include not only nationally significant properties but
also those that may be eligible because of their importance to a
locality, state, or region.
Although planning is a decision-making process for managers, it must
consider the concerns of others. Consultation with the Advisory Council
on Historic Preservation and state historic preservation officers
(SHPOs) is required by law and regulation. Regulations and Management
Policies also require consultation with Native Americans and other
concerned ethnic groups, other federal agencies, state and local
governments, and other interested parties. While compliance with the
National Historic Preservation Act addresses most cultural resource
concerns, planners and managers must also comply with the National
Environmental Policy Act. (See Chapter 5 for compliance with Section 106
of the National Historic Preservation Act, including special provisions
for park plans.)
B. Planning Scopes
Planning can focus on a specific resource or resource type, address a
major segment of a park, cover an entire park, or transcend park
boundaries. The first type of planning results in action plans of the
kind described in Chapters 6 through 10. Because parks are part of
larger cultural environments, and because the Service's concern for
cultural resource preservation extends beyond parks, the NPS has
increasingly become involved in planning beyond park boundaries. NPS
cultural resource specialists should participate actively in planning
for national heritage corridors, partnership parks, national trails, and
other joint ventures.
Standards
Before planning commences, a comprehensive park inventory of
cultural resources within the area to be affected is compiled.
Planners, cultural resource specialists, and managers
coordinate funding and schedules for research including schedules for
planning.
Planning Document
Special resource study (new area study)
Statement for management
General management plan
Development concept plan
Interpretive prospectus
Design and treatment plans
Cultural Resource Information Sources
Preliminary historic contexts
Existing inventories and literature review
Rapid ethnographic assessment project
Historic contexts and theme studies
Ethnographic overview and assessment
Scope of collection statement/collection reports/plans
Scope of collection statement and available reports/plans
Historic resource study
Archeological overview and assessment
Archeological sites base map
Archeological identification and evaluation studies
Cultural affiliation study
Cultural Landscapes Inventory
List of Classified Structures
Rapid ethnographic assessment project
Ethnographic overview and assessment
Historic resource study
Historic structure report/cultural landscape report
Historic furnishings report
Special history study
Archeological overview and assessment
Archeological sites base map
Archeological identification and evaluation studies
Cultural affiliation study
Rapid ethnographic assessment project
Traditional use study
Social impact assessment
Collection mgt. plan and available reports/plans
Historic resource study
Scope of collection statement
Archeological overview and assessment
Archeological sites base map
Archeological identification and evaluation studies
Cultural affiliation study
Historic furnishings report
Exhibit plan
Ethnographic overview and assessment
Historic structure report/cultural landscape report
Physical documentation and material analysis
Archeological sites base map
Archeological identification and evaluation studies
National Register nominations/eligibility determinations for archeological resources
Archeological data recovery plan
Checklist for Pres. & Protection of Museum Collections
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Planners, cultural resource specialists, and managers weigh the
significance of cultural resources, their condition, their interpretive
value, their research potential, the availability of data about them,
and threats to them in determining their ultimate treatment and use.
Planners, cultural resource specialists, and managers consult
with and consider the views of the SHPOs, Advisory Council on Historic
Preservation, other federal agencies, local governments, Native
Americans and other concerned ethnic groups, and other interested
parties as part of compliance with Section 106.
Planners, cultural resource specialists, and managers
consider cultural resource issues that may relate to lands outside park
boundaries and participate actively in planning efforts by or involving
neighboring jurisdictions.
C. Resources Management Plans
"Each park with cultural resources will prepare and periodically update
a cultural resource component of the park's resources management plan,
defining and programming the activities required to perpetuate and
provide for the public enjoyment of those resources" (Management
Policies 5:4).
The objectives of the cultural resource component of a resources
management plan (RMP) are
(a) to summarize the cultural resource values and related mission and
purposes of the park;
(b) to analyze the significance of resource management needs and
problems and rank them in importance;
(c) to propose specific actions, including funding and staffing
requirements, for dealing with the most important problems;
(d) to present a multi-year program to achieve measurable progress in
accomplishing the proposed actions;
(e) to provide for an annual review and recording of accomplishments to
measure the effectiveness of actions; and
(f) to provide a forum for an interdisciplinary approach to the park's
resource management issues.
The resources management plan is part of a larger planning process
described in the Planning Process Guideline. The RMP draws its
major objectives from the park's comprehensive planning documents: the
statement for management (SFM) and the general management plan (GMP). In
turn, research and studies called for by the RMP may result in new
knowledge that will influence the objectives and management needs
previously defined in the SFM and GMP.
The RMP takes the resource management objectives a step further and
describes a specific plan of action, which is used to prioritize
requests for funding and to guide the expenditure of that portion of
park base funds devoted to cultural resource management.
One of the objectives of the RMP is to foster integration of natural and
cultural resource management actions in the park.
In addition to its introductory material, the RMP will contain
(a) a present resource status section summarizing and evaluating the
condition and documentation of the park's cultural resources and major
threats to them; and
(b) a resource management program section containing
(1) an overview that includes a summary of the major cultural resource
issues, the strategies the park will use to address the most significant
problems, and a discussion of unfunded needs;
(2) summary charts of structures, cultural landscapes, museum objects,
archeological sites, and ethnographic resources; charts on personnel and
funding; a list of currently funded actions; and a four-year priority
listing of unfunded needs;
(3) individual project statements; and
(4) cultural resource documentation checklist.
A report of unfunded project and program needs will be submitted
annually by March 31.
(For detailed guidance on the development of the RMP, see Resources
Management Plans: Planning and Software Manual, 1994.)
D. Planning and Cultural Resource Considerations
Specific cultural resources require special consideration in planning.
Here are some perspectives to keep in mind during the planning
process:
1. Archeological Resources
a. Areas proposed for ground-disturbing activities will be surveyed for
archeological resources prior to site selection. Development will not
begin until the archeologist has submitted an archeological clearance
report and Section 106 compliance has been completed. Plans and project
documents will provide for the recovery and care of any archeological
resources or data discovered during a project (see 36 CFR 800.11).
b. Because subsurface remains are subject to increased deterioration
after exposure and can present safety hazards, plans should prescribe
the backfilling of all excavated sites not essential for interpretation
or other purposes. Limits of excavation should be marked so that they
may be recovered in the future.
c. In compliance with federal law, plans keep the locations of
archeological sites confidential to protect them from looting and
vandalism.
2. Cultural Landscapes
a. Plans should reflect respect for a landscape's period(s) of
historical significance and the features, patterns, and relationships
contributing to its significance. Planners should realize that there is
a lack of baseline data and contextual information for cultural
landscapes, so that a landscape's significance and character-defining
features may need to be determined as part of the planning process.
b. Planners should consult the park's inventory of cultural resources to
determine what resources might be affected by the planning exercise.
c. Planners should consult cultural landscape specialists.
d. Planners should consider the possible adverse effects of vegetation
screening, ramps, waysides, signs, and changes in grade on cultural
landscapes. New features should be characterized by compatible design,
materials, and workmanship.
e. Planners should work with natural resource management specialists to
ensure that natural resources are protected consistent with cultural
resource objectives.
f. Decisions regarding public or administrative use of a cultural
landscape including the siting of new facilities, parking,
etc.should reflect knowledge of its condition and carrying
capacity and the possible adverse effects of any required
modifications.
3. Historic and Prehistoric Structures
a. Planners should consult the park's List of Classified Structures
(LCS) to determine what structures might be affected by the planning
exercise.
b. Plans should reflect respect for a structure's period(s) of
historical significance and the features contributing to its
significance and setting.
c. Decisions on the public or administrative use of a structureits
adaptive use or rehabilitationshould reflect knowledge of its
condition and carrying capacity and the possible adverse effects of any
required modifications for fire and life safety, accessibility, and
climate control.
d. Materials that emit chemicals that are detrimental to structures and
museum collections should be minimized.
4. Museum Objects (for more specific guidance see NPS Museum
Handbook)
a. Plans for exhibit and storage spaces should address all preservation
and protection standards and requirements. (See Director's Order 24,
"Standards for NPS Museum Collections Management.")
b. Plans should address the installation of intrusion detection, fire
detection, fire suppression, and environmental control systems
appropriate to the nature of the museum collections and the structures
housing them.
c. A structure's load capacity for museum and archival storage should be
evaluated, especially in historic structures, by a structural engineer
familiar with historic and modern buildings.
d. Facility planners should consider the provision of loading docks and
double doors to storage spaces for large and heavy objects and receiving
rooms for processing acquisitions. Freight elevators also facilitate the
movement of objects in storage areas. Stairs should be avoided.
e. Museum and archival collections should have dedicated storage,
separate from maintenance and other activities, above grade and outside
floodplains, with security and fire protection systems and
climate-control capabilities to provide a constant environment.
f. Planning must give priority to preventive conservation
principles.
5. Ethnographic Resources
a. Plans should consider the privacy of traditional user groups and
their desire to continue cultural activities without intrusion from
visitors.
b. Visitor circulation and use patterns should avoid sacred places.
c. Tribal leaders and elders should be consulted regarding appropriate
planning involving museum objects or lands they use or value.
d. The reasoning behind the need for and the nature of any ethnographic
study must be explained in writing to the affected group before the
study begins.
e. Groups selected by the NPS for ethnographic studies have the right to
reject or modify the proposed research designs for such studies. For
example, a Native American tribe may be willing to work with NPS
scientists to ensure that plants harvested for traditional uses are not
endangered or overharvested. This same group, however, may not see the
need to share or detail the cultural uses to which the plants are put.
Under such circumstances, no studies should be undertaken by the NPS,
although an ethnographer should be available to assist in resolving
possible conflicts.
Standards
A resources management plan is prepared for each park and
reviewed every two to four years.
Each park assesses the adequacy of its cultural resource
information base and proposes in its resources management plan to
correct deficiencies.
Areas affected by construction, human use, or natural forces
have a cultural resources survey sufficient to develop an information
base upon which alternatives avoiding or minimizing adverse effects can
be planned.
Cultural resource specialists are full members of planning
teams addressing predominantly cultural parks and are, at a minimum,
consultants to planning teams addressing other parks with cultural
resources. When appropriate, Native American leaders are invited to
serve as consultants.
Proposals for actions that may affect cultural resources are
advanced only if sufficient data have been gathered to assess the
probable effects.
Proposals for actions that may affect cultural resources are
reviewed at the earliest possible point by cultural resource specialists
to ensure that all feasible measures have been or will be taken to avoid
or minimize resource impairment. Unavoidable adverse effects are
mitigated in accordance with this guideline.
Decisions concerning the treatment and use of cultural
resources are made and recorded in the park's general management plan or
development concept plan(s) and programmed for accomplishment through
the park's resources management plan.
Sections 106 and 110 of the National Historic Preservation
Act have been complied with in accordance with the regulations of the
Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (36 CFR 800) and "Guidelines
for Federal Responsibilities under Section 110 of the National Historic
Preservation Act" (53 FR 4728).
In cases involving ethnographic resources and ethnographic
museum objects, associated Native American and other ethnic groups are
consulted and their concerns are taken into account.
CHECKLIST FOR PLANNING
Purpose of park is established.
Legislative and management constraints are
identified.
Existing surveys and studies are reviewed, and additional
research is programmed if needed.
Park's cultural resources are identified and evaluated,
using historical contexts.
Park's interpretive theme(s) is/are determined for
interpretation, resource management, and regional planning
purposes.
Condition of cultural resources is assessed.
Objectives for managing cultural resources are
developed.
Issues needing resolution are identified.
Objectives and issues relating to cultural resources are
incorporated into park's statement for management.
General management plan or development concept plan is
initiated to develop alternatives to resolve issues and
conflicts.
Appropriate uses for cultural resources are identified, and
ultimate treatments of cultural resources are determined.
Interested parties are consulted, and compliance with
necessary laws is completed.
Alternatives are evaluated based on avoiding or minimizing
harm to cultural resources.
Preferred alternative is implemented.
Resource management needs and priorities are addressed in
park's resources management plan.
A multi-year cultural resource program proposes specific
actions for dealing with the most significant problems.
Cultural resources outside park boundaries are considered
through the planning process with active participation of neighboring
jurisdictions.
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