What is the Montana Site Stewardship Program

The Bureau of Land ManagementMontana State University and Project Archaeology have formed a partnership to develop a Montana Site Stewardship Program. The program promotes public awareness of both pre-contact and historic cultural resources in Montana. The program is an organization of volunteers, overseen by public land managers who are committed to cultural resource protection and preservation activities that will reduce degradation of archaeological sites due to human, animal, and environmental impacts.

Program Goals

  • Prevent destruction of cultural resources due to the acts of nature, theft or vandalism.
  • Preserve pre-contact and historic cultural resources for the purpose of conservation, scientific study, interpretation, and for their significance to American Indian people.
  • Raise public awareness of the value of cultural resources through education and outreach.
  • Support and encourage high standards of cultural resource investigation throughout the state.
  • Promote stewardship of irreplaceable resources in perpetuity.
  • Enhance communication, understanding, and collaboration among organizations, agencies, tribes, and individuals concerned with the protection of cultural resources.

What do Site Stewards do?

  • Site Stewards monitor archaeological sites in danger of vandalism or natural deterioration.
  • Report any changes in a site to the professional archaeologist with jurisdiction over the site and working closely with Federal and State agency archaeologists.
  • Use observations, field notes, drawings, and photography to record changes over time.
  • Community education and outreach concerning the Site Stewardship program and the importance of preserving archaeological sites.
The program seeks volunteers with a strong interest in cultural resource conservation.

To become a Montana Site Stewardship volunteer, you must fill out an application and attend a two-day training workshop. Volunteer training includes classroom instruction and fieldwork.

To register for the workshop contact Dr. Jack Fisher: jfisher@montana.edu Phone: (406) 994-5250.

Montana Site Stewardship Training

Upcoming Dates:
TBD

 

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