Cultural Resources Practitioners is a certified Small Business dedicated to the management of California’s diverse cultural resources. We employ experts in the profession who provide quality cultural resources management (CRM) services to a variety of clients including private developers, landowners, other CRM firms, and local, state and federal agencies.
Desktop Reviews & Archaeological Sensitivity Assessments
Buried Site Sensitivity Assessments: analyze the potential for buried cultural resources in a specific area. The method uses a geoarchaeological approach that combines the fields of geomorphology (the study of landforms and soils) and archaeology, and uses concepts from both fields to produce a risk assessment for an area to contain surficial, buried, or submerged archaeological resources.
The process involves a desktop review of local geologic and soils maps to analyze the potential that underlying geologic units, landform types, and soils have in containing buried cultural deposits. Determining the geologic age is important because there is a higher probability for discovering buried archaeological resources in certain landforms and soils (e.g., recent Holocene-age alluvium situated near a stream).
REcent Sensitivity assessments & Desktop Review Projects
Delmas Avenue Project - City of San Jose
CRP conducted a historic built environment desktop review and summary, cultural resources records search, and GIS map preparation for the Delmas Avenue Project located in the City of San Jose. CRP provided our client and the City with cultural maps and a narrative for using in assessing the potential for historic-era archaeological resources. The data was compiled using documentation that included historic Sanborn Insurance maps, USGS maps, County Atlas, and historic aerial imagery.
Cultural Resources Practitioners, LLC
Desktop reviews are summaries of publicly accessible literature, maps, and listings from numerous online databases. Types of data can include: soils, geology, paleontology, historic map databases, review of current and historic aerial imagery, the OHP California Historical Resources online database, National Register, historic bridge databases, and shipwreck databases.
The following examples of CRP desktop reviews may be conducted independently of one another, or can be used to informcultural resources sensitivity assessments and predictability models.
Built Environment Sensitivity Assessments: are a useful tool for predicting the potential for the existence of historic-era buildings, structures, objects, and features within or near a project location, and can also assist in the prediction of buried historic-era archaeological deposits.
The process involves a desktop review of local historic-era maps, and local, state, and federal registers and inventories. Historic maps are useful in determining the history of development and the age of undocumented cultural resources located in or near a project area.
ATT Project - El Dorado County
CRP was retained to conduct a desktop review and records search at the NCIC for the proposed installation of two telecommunications towers and the excavation of a 900-foot trench connecting the towers within a Caltrans right-of-way and extending into State Parks property. CRP provided a cultural resources letter report, project recommendations and guidance, and a site sensitivity assessment related to managing the potential impacts to a National Register of Historic Places listed historic district, historic-era archaeological resources, and prehistoric archaeological resources.