Based on performance related to multiple cultural resource inventory tasks under an Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract awarded in 2008, ESM’s Cultural Resource Program has been awarded a second IDIQ contract by the U.S. Forest Service Southwestern Region. This contract puts ESM cultural resource specialists on-call for National Forests throughout Arizona and northern New Mexico, inventorying vast tracts of previously uninvestigated lands.

Cultural resource inventories are performed to help Region 3 forests enact policy regarding travel management, fuels reduction, vegetation treatment, and forest health initiatives that mitigates potential impacts to cultural resources on these forests. To date, ESM archaeologists have worked on 20 different projects on Region 3 forests.

As U.S. Forest Service management balances multiple uses of the forest with protection of our cultural and natural resources, archaeological inventories and the management recommendations that result from them are a critical element to enacting policy that preserves our shared heritage.