Draft Environmental Impact Statement for Roca Honda Mine

Chapter 3. Affected Environment and Environmental Consequences
effect. The Forest Service will provide this document to the ACHP and the consulting parties for
their review and input. Upon consideration of and response to the input received, the Forest
Service will finalize the document and submit it to the NMSHPO for formal Section 106 review
and consultation. When concurrence by the NMSHPO on the Forest Service’s determinations has
been received, the Forest Service will consult with the ACHP and the consulting parties to
develop a programmatic agreement to resolve adverse effects to historic properties. This
programmatic agreement will be incorporated into the final EIS and the Forest Service’s record of
decision.
Cultural Resources in the Region of Influence
As a result of the cultural resource investigations, tribal consultation, and input received from the
Section 106 consulting parties, the Forest Service has identified cultural resources located within
the region of influence (i.e., the physical and setting APEs). These resources are described in this
section.
The Forest Service appreciates that the definitions and boundaries applied to cultural resources by
the Forest Service are meaningful mainly from scientific and management perspectives. Such
definitions and boundaries are necessary for assessing the impacts and effects of the proposed
project, managing these cultural resources for the long term, and for compliance with various
laws, regulations, etc. The Forest Service recognizes the complexity inherent when resources
overlap, and when the significance of those resources is tied to multiple cultures of use.
Depending on one’s viewpoint, the boundaries may be different or even nonexistent, the
separation between resource types or groupings may not exist, and the many relationships
between resources may vary to reflect the perspectives of the people to whom the resources are
important. The Forest Service also recognizes that these varied perspectives are not exclusive,
and can often contribute together to a fuller definition of historical and cultural importance.
As described earlier, the Forest Service has some additional work to complete between the draft
and final EISs to define cultural resources located within the ROI. This work will have varying
levels of impact on the information presented in this section. Recording of additional
archaeological resources, with some recorded as new sites and others incorporated into existing
sites, may result in changes to the number of archaeological resources or changes to the sizes of
some resources. Review by the consulting parties of the dewatering discharge pipeline survey
report and the archaeological testing report could result in changes to the eligibility of some
resources. The geomorphological study, which is addressing the potential for deeply buried
archaeological deposits, could result in changes to what is known about the nature, number, or
extent of some archaeological resources. Continued consultation by the Forest Service with the
tribes could provide additional information about cultural resources in the ROI. Finally, the Forest
Service will use the information collected through resource investigations, tribal consultation, and
consulting party input to prepare a Section 106 compliance document that presents and supports
the Forest Service’s determinations of resource eligibility and project effect. The review and input
of the ACHP and the consulting parties on this document could result in changes to the
information presented in this section.
The involved tribes have expressed concern that potentially not every single cultural resource
within the APEs has been identified and recorded. Missing information about cultural resources
for such a large project can be due to the challenges of conducting fieldwork, difficulties of
translation of traditional concepts or government standards between tribal languages and English,
DEIS for Roca Honda Mine, Cibola National Forest 315