Project Portfolio: Cultural Resources Services

Over the last 20 years, Tierra’s cultural resources team has conducted various testing and data recovery projects at a large multi-component prehistoric settlement, known as the Dairy site (AZ AA:12:285[ASM]), in the Town of Marana in the northern Tucson Basin. Our most recent excavation was conducted from 2017 to 2018 at the last remaining intact portion of the Dairy site, the North Locus. Work was conducted to assist Red Point Development in complying with Section 404 of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Clean Water Act prior to a proposed residential development project.

Tierra was contracted by the BLM’s Las Cruces District Office to conduct a Class III cultural resources inventory of five parcels totaling 1,496 acres in the Organ Mountains–Desert Peaks National Monument in Doña Ana County, New Mexico. The inventory was conducted to comply with Section 110 of the National Historic Preservation Act, and as such, there was no undertaking associated with the project. The objective of the inventory was to provide information about the archaeological and historical resources present in the survey area that the BLM can use in the development of a Management Plan for the monument. 

Tierra was subcontracted by HDR, Inc., to conduct a cultural resources assessment and subsurface archaeological testing for King County’s Lower Russell Road Levee Setback Project, near Kent. The King County Flood Control District planned to remove and replace the existing flood-containment system of levees and revetments located between the east bank of the Green River and Russell Road.

Tierra was contracted by the Bureau of Reclamation to conduct numerous tasks associated with an archaeological site at Steamboat Rock State Park, in Grant County, Washington. Tasks include site condition assessment fieldwork, a site condition report, and a treatment plan for the site.

Tierra was contracted by the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest in Washington State to perform a detailed survey and record sites at the Monte Cristo Mining District and townsite. The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) was preparing for a large-scale clean-up intended to remove contaminated soils from several mines, adits, and processing centers within the old townsite. As part of the clean-up process, a full inventory of cultural resources was requested. 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service contracted Tierra to conduct an intensive cultural resources inventory of five discrete units totaling 882 acres within a portion of the Apache National Forest administered by the Gila National Forest (GNF). 

Tierra archaeologists performed a 1,752-acre Class III cultural resources inventory for a New Mexico Energy, Minerals, and Natural Resources Department Abandoned Mine Lands Program undertaking to safeguard the public from hazardous open mines in the Hansonburg Mining District.

Tierra recently conducted a 1,296-acre cultural resources survey for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) within the Yucca Ash Clearance Area of the Las Cienegas National Conservation Area (LCNCA) in Santa Cruz County, Arizona. Mesquite, its growth encouraged by cattle grazing, has invaded much of the grasslands of the LCNCA, and the BLM has undertaken a series of projects to eradicate the species.

Tierra was contracted by Wetland Resources, Inc., to conduct a cultural resources assessment in advance of the construction of a 6-mile-long, 115kV electrical line in Snohomish and Island Counties. The work was performed in support of an U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permit and various State and County permits.

Tierra conducted a cultural resources inventory of 720 acres managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) near Teague Springs Indian Hot Springs, a 1930s-era Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp northeast of Safford, Arizona. The BLM solicited the survey in its goal to better understand and document the work performed by the CCC in the Safford Basin.

Since 2014, Tierra has held an Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service to provide intensive and sample pedestrian archaeological surveys and cultural resources investigations on an on-call basis within Forest Service Region 3 in New Mexico. 

Kit Carson Electric Cooperative (KCEC) hired Tierra to conduct extensive cultural resource and biological surveys and environmental permitting for the Taos Broadband Project, which entailed the installation of a fiber-optic network that will parallel the existing KCEC electrical distribution system within Colfax, Rio Arriba, and Taos Counties in New Mexico. 

In preparation for downtown-area revitalization projects, Tierra was hired by the City of Tucson to survey, test, and excavate a property at the intersection of 6th and Toole Avenues within the Tucson Warehouse Historic District. Archaeological and archival research revealed that this parcel was first used as a distribution and storage center after 1880 when the railroad arrived in Tucson and represents early industry in the area. This project allowed researchers a unique window into industrial and commercial life in early Tucson. In partnership with the City, Tierra was able to complete the project in a timely manner while also furthering our understanding of the city’s rich heritage.

Tierra was hired by the Bureau of Reclamation to prepare a National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) nomination for the Palisades Dam and Powerplant, located on the Snake River about 55 miles southeast of Idaho Falls, Idaho.