BLM underfunded as thieves, vandals put valued ruins across West at risk

[DeepModem Mom]

LAT: Thieves and Vandals Put a National Gem at Risk
Strapped agencies are at a loss to save valued ruins across the West.
By Julie Cart, Times Staff Writer
August 28, 2006


TAMPERING: A petroglyph at Escalante National Monument in Utah bears cuts. Thieves use power tools to remove the rock art.
(Bureau of Land Management)

....At many federally managed cultural sites, damage is widespread, from casual pilfering by arrowhead collectors to excavating by professional thieves. Some haul power tools into canyons to cut out rock art panels. In a 2003 study of cultural and fossil resources on public land, the Bureau of Land Management reported that "increasing visitation to public lands is resulting in both intentional and inadvertent damage to these resources from collection, vandalism, surface disturbance…. Remote areas, once protected by their distance from populated areas, are now within easy reach of the hardy and well-equipped hiker, off-highway-vehicle user, and urban and suburban resident."

A study released this summer by the National Trust for Historic Preservation reached much the same conclusion and added that the BLM was too cash-strapped and understaffed to meet the challenge.

The report said that the BLM was failing to protect places with the most significant archeological and scientific holdings, such as (Colorado's) Canyons of the Ancients, that are part of the National Landscape Conservation System. Created by former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt in 2000, the system encompasses national monuments, historic trails, rivers and wilderness areas....Recently, the Bush administration recommended a $5-million cut to the budget of the BLM's National Landscape Conservation System....

***

...John Silence, BLM's special agent in charge of law enforcement in Colorado...said the energy boom on public lands has punched roads into once-inaccessible areas and his agents have noted an increase in looting and vandalism near new oil fields.

"These guys are back there putting in pipelines and well sites," Silence said. "They are coming across archeological sites, they are finding the stuff and taking it home. There are pots coming out of the ground because of the oil and gas boom, no question."...

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-rockart28aug28,0,6937937.story?coll=la-home-nation

[yellerpup]

1. On message: Nothing is sacred.

:cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

[havocmom]

2. Makes it easier (and cheaper) for fat cat collectors to get relics

of their very own. See, they DO need all the bushco tax cuts for the rich so they can buy more cultural heritage.

[rodeodance]

3. "increase in looting and vandalism near new oil fields."

[rodeodance]

4. its not the funding. Ther is something seriously wrong when people just

take things that belong to the public for their own pocket or to make a quick buck. There is a right and wrong.

[DeepModem Mom]

6. Good point. From the article --

"Even if we had a whole lot of additional resources, the nature of public lands in the West makes it difficult and challenging to protect," Wisely said. "The ultimate answer is an individual stewardship ethic, with every individual understanding what these resources are and what they mean to us. It means people behaving themselves out there and keeping themselves to a higher standard."

[angstlessk]

5. I remember as a kid finding our way into the Hermitage Museum

when it was closed and no one was around. We felt we had come upon the mother lode, so we spent about an hour looking at all the fine treasures there until some guard finally made his rounds to find us snooping. It NEVER occured to us to even touch anything, much less steal something from this beautiful Museum. This is the new greed we read so much about. Greed is good therefore anyway you can get something is good. Thank Reagan for that mind fuck!