The Society for American Archaeology’s Task Forces on Landscape Policy Issues

Abstract

The management of cultural resources by federal land-managing agencies in the United States is moving in the direction of programmatic approaches that consider archaeological resources on a regional or landscape level. In 2014, the Society for American Archaeology (SAA), in response to meetings with federal agencies, established three task forces on issues related to landscape-scale cultural resource management (CRM). The task forces focused on: (1) survey data quality, durability, and use; (2) incorporating archaeological resources in regional land-use plans; and (3) valuing archaeological resources. Revised reports of the task forces are being published in this issue of Advances in Archaeological Practice. This paper provides the context and history of the task forces, particularly the CRM challenges facing federal land-managing agencies leading to the selection of topics that are subjects of the published articles.