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MEMORANDUM
Date: 27 November 2001
To: Linda Clark
Bureau of Land Management
From: Neal Ackerly, Ph.D.
Dos Rios Consultants, Inc.
http://www.dos-rios.com
Re: New Mexico NMCRIS at ARMS
On the heels of the Cultural Resources
Data Users Group meeting on October 29-30 in Phoenix, Tim Seaman
has indicated that you are collecting "success stories"
regarding BLM data sharing initiatives. So here goes.
This concerns my recent use of NMCRIS records from the Archaeological
Records Management System (ARMS) in Santa Fe. I am now finalizing
a Resource Management Plan for the Farmington District Office
of the BLM. Over the past six months, working closely with Tim
Seaman, I have quickly obtained more than 33,000 archaeological
site records for the 8.2 million acre footprint of the Farmington
District and been able to rapidly transfer data into ArcView so
that I might develop GIS data layers for this very large area.
As well, I have been able to rapidly complete detailed analyses
of spatial and temporal variability in the characteristics of
the District's prehistory. In doing so, I have been able to identify
portions of the District's holdings that merit greater attention
and specify classes of cultural resources that warrant more active
management.
Only by accessing records at NMCRIS/ARMS was I able to complete
such a rapid evaluation of the District's cultural resources,
thereby allowing me to make quite specific recommendations for
the future management of these resources. Since arriving in New
Mexico almost 13 years ago, I have considered ARMS the premier
archaeological records management system in the country. This
most recent project, given both its broad geographic scope and
relatively short deadline for completion, has confirmed to me
the usefulness of this system for managing cultural resources
on public lands. Indeed, it is so useful in structure and content
that I foresee a time when planning on Federal lands can be done
on an annual, rather than decadal, basis. I sincerely hope that
Federal support for this system – specifically from the Bureau
of Land Management – will continue and be expanded in the
future.
This is just a sample of what could be accomplished if true data
sharing among agencies were to be established. In New Mexico,
we are rapidly approaching "real time" data entry that
would enable agencies to plan almost instantaneously for specific
projects and/or multiple alternate undertakings. In the absence
of programmatic data sharing, with requisite financial support,
such possibilities will simply cease to exist.
Thanks for a moment of your time.
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