Coastal and Archaeological Resources on National Wildlife Refuges

The Southeastern Region of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service manages a number of refuges on which coastal erosion is the major destructive force acting on archeological resources. In the past, the lack of knowledge about the resources being damaged or about the extent of erosional damage has precluded the Service from developing a regional preservation plan for these resources. This report summarizes the known information on prehistoric resources in each of the coastal refuges in the Southeast, and provides a basis for decision-making concerning the treatment of these resources. The study also takes an in-depth look at preservation as a treatment measure for eroding sites. The use of erosion control measures as a treatment option has become fairly common along reservoir or lake shorelines, but is still rare in the coastal zone. Potentially useful control measures, including structural measures such as bulkheads, seawalls, and revetments, and non-structural measures such as vegetation, are discussed in terms of their applicability to archeological sites, their durability, and their cost-effectiveness in comparison to data recovery. The information should be applicable to any Federal, State, or local agency that has responsibility for cultural resources in a coastal area, and it is hoped that experimentation with erosion control measures will ensue. Much of the coastal archeological record has already been destroyed by the combined forces of natural and human-induced erosion, and alternative ways of preserving the remaining record are needed.