Report rips Forest Service priorities on historic, cultural sites
By John C. Ensslin, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Thursday, May 15, 2008
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The U.S. Forest Service has made preserving historic and cultural sites a low priority as it focuses attention instead on issues such as timber sales and fighting wildfires, according to a report released Thursday in Denver.
As a result, Native American archaeology sites, Revolutionary War and Civil War battlefields, and other landmarks are at risk of falling into ruin, according to the study commissioned by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
The trust is urging that the federal government spend an additional $15 million each year on monitoring about 300,000 sites on national forest land.
The report also encouraged the Forest Service to do more private-public partnerships to preserve sites, as it has done with the historic Dexter Cabin, part of a 19th century resort being restored inside San Isabel National Forest in Colorado.
ensslinj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5291
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May 16, 2008
7:58 a.m.
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jbowen43 writes:
As long as Bush is in office profiteering from the forest will be the number one goal. Show them how to make easy money from cultural preservation and they will be all over culture like flies on sht.
May 16, 2008
10:40 a.m.
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byteme writes:
If the enviros didn't waste all of USFS' time suing them to save beetle kill forests, they might have more time to work on these historic sites.
May 31, 2008
2:44 p.m.
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denver50 writes:
Historic sites are timeless. Why do idiots strive for political points on such matters? Isn't this something we can all agree on? After all, history is all of ours.