Thirty Years of Integrating Academic Research and Federal Regulatory Compliance on San Clemente Island

Thirty Years of Integrating Academic Research and Federal Regulatory Compliance on San Clemente Island

Dr. Andy Yatsko (Senior Archaeologist and Navy Region Southwest Archaeologist for the Naval Facilities Engineering Command Southwest in San Diego)
Friday, October 18 / 3:30 PM
2001a HSSB

Yatsko will discuss the challenges and opportunities of integrating academic archaeological research and regulatory compliance through his many years of work both as a researcher and Navy archaeologist on San Nicholas Island. Yatsko received his PhD from UCLA and currently serves as Senior Archaeologist for the Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Southwest. His work integrating research and resource management was recognized through the Society for California Archaeology’s Lifetime Achievement Award, which he received last year.

“The California Channel Islands are recognized as unparalleled natural laboratories for investigating the development of human adaptive systems.  Since the early 1980s, Navy-supported research on San Clemente Island (SCLI) has pursued required determinations of National Register eligibility under research designed and directed toward reconstruction of the human ecology of the island’s prehistoric settlement systems.  Questions posed by this research have brought together a variety of archaeological, biological, ecological and paleoenvironmental data with broad topical significance. While this ongoing research has increasingly been in terms of contracted regulatory compliance projects, a significant element has also been pursued through the integration of cooperative academic research partnerships with regional universities. Dr. Andy Yatsko discusses his 30-year history of integrating this academic research-regulatory compliance model in his management of the island’s archaeology. Examples are provided for how these collaborations have both expanded our understanding of the island’s prehistory and provided for more effective management of its archaeological record. Yatsko received his Ph.D. from UCLA and currently serves as Senior Archaeologist for the Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Southwest. In addition to several Navy awards, his work integrating research and resource management was recognized through the Society for California Archaeology’s Lifetime Achievement Award, which he received last year.”

Sponsored by the Dept. of Anthropology and the IHC’s Archeology RFG.
Website: https://www.ihc.ucsb.edu/archaeology/