Archaeological Report
Harney County Oregon, Range Seeding Projects

The cultural resource surveys discussed here were undertaken prior to rangeland seeding projects that have been proposed as part of the BLM Range Management Program. These seedings have been discussed in detail in the Final Environmental Statement, Drewsey Grazing Management Program (BLM 1979), and will only be summarized here.

As part of an effort to increase the carrying capacity of the area's rangeland, BLM proposes to seed nearly 33,000 acres of land in the Drewsey Resource Area with crested wheatgrass and yellow sweet clover. Portions of these proposed seeding areas will require previous seedbed preparation, either through controlled burning, spraying with herbicides to kill brush, or a combination of these methods.

Drilling will be accomplished by a small caterpillar crawler or rubber-tired vehicle. Three rangeland drills will be pulled across the soil with the drill discs entering the ground to a depth of 2-3 inches. Each of the three drills will have eight discs within a 12-foot drill frame, resulting in 24 discs within 36 feet. Also impacting the ground will be the two tracks produced by the pulling vehicles.

There is no substantial body of information on impact to cultural resources by rangeland drills. An experiment was conducted during the summer of 1979 which was designed to assess the impact on cultural resources (Newman, Rotti and Sounart 1979). This experiment indicates that surface displacement is minimal, in almost all cases less than a few inches. Although there was minimal surface displacement, many of the artifacts were buried or damaged. Only 75% of the artifacts were recovered within three inches of the original ground. surface, and 44% were found to be substantially altered. It appears that breakage was primarily caused by tractor treads rather than the drill discs, except in a few cases where the disc hit an artifact directly.

In addition to the impact of tractor treads and drill discs, secondary impacts may occur when an increased number of Livestock are allowed to graze the seeding areas. It is not clear to what extent such grazing may adversely impact cultural resources, but the general consensus seems to be that the dispersed effect of grazing cattle is not as much of a problem as concentrated trampling at water sources or along fencelines. (Roney 1977; Logsdon 1976; and Flenniken and Haggarty 1979.)

Erosion is severe in many portions of the proposed seedings. The effects of spraying or burning will be limited to increased erosion during the months when new cover is being re-established. Drilling to establish stable vegetative cover may in the long run serve to ameliorate present and future erosion rates.