User:Saravask/Management

Chaco Culture National Historical Park is managed by the National Park Service, a federal agency within the Department of the Interior; neighboring federal lands hosting Chacoan roads are under the control of the Bureau of Land Management. In 2003, the park's total annual operating budget was $1,434,000.^[1] Prior to the 1980s, archeological excavations within the current park were intensive, involving the partial dismantling or demolition of compound walls and extraction of thousands of artifacts. Starting in 1981, a new approach informed by traditional Hopi and Pueblo beliefs led to restrictions on such intrusive excavations, preferring instead methods—including remote sensing, anthropological research into Indian oral traditions, and dendrochronology—that leave the Chacoan sites relatively undisturbed. In this vein, the Chaco American Indian Consultation Committee was established in 1991 in order to allow Navajo, Hopi, Pueblo, and other Indian representatives a voice in the park’s management.^[2]

Current park policy mandates partial restoration and reconstruction of excavated sites and ruined compounds alike. “Backfilling”, which involves the use of sand to re-bury excavated sites, is one such technique.^[2] Other initiatives include the Chaco Night Sky Program, which seeks to eliminate the impact of light pollution on the park's acclaimed night skies; under the program, some 14,000 visitors make use of the Chaco Observatory (inaugurated in 1998), park telescopes, and astronomy-related programs.^[2] However, Chacoan relics outside the current park's boundaries have been threatened by development: an example was the proposed competitive leasing of federal lands in the San Juan Basin for coal mining beginning in 1983. Since ample coal deposits immediately abut the park, the strip mining would have threatened the web of ancient Chacoan roads. The year-long Chaco Roads Project thus documented the roads, which were later protected from the proposed mining.^[3]