Standards for Cultural Resource Reporting Updated

Happy New Year everyone!

A new year means an updated version of the Washington State Standards for Cultural Resources Reporting! The changes only affect the built environment portion of the Standards. There are no updates to the archaeology sections.

Some highlights are: new guidance about what and how to record buildings/structures in general and in new Wisaard; new guidance for recording linear properties; specific field by field instructions for completing the HPI form. If you work in the cultural resources field you will want to have a look. Hopefully there is some helpful, clarifying information. Those of you that attended the DAHP Academy in early December will find much of this inforamtion at least familiar. 

Please note that the Standards do not set any DAHP policies. The Standards are meant to assist you in your cultural resources reporting efforts and to help ensure that information submitted to DAHP for compliance review is sufficient for decision making. We also hope they will help ensure that Wisaard contains the best data possible for all of our users. 

Please reach out to me if you have any questions or commets regarding the new Standards or just want to chat about how to record a particular resource. I am already getting great questions about how to record historic built linear features. We are all just getting started with recording linear features on the HPI form and there is certainly opportunity for discussion that we look forward to. So bring us your challenging recordation questions!  

Kim Gant

kim.gant@dahp.wa.gov