Gifford Pinchot National Forest

Heritage Program

Welcome

The purpose of the Heritage Program is to protect significant heritage resources, to share the values of these resources with the American people, and to contribute relevant information and perspectives to forest management.

Heritage resources are locations of past human activity, occupation or use identifiable through field survey, historical documentation, or oral tradition.

To date, 1,596 heritage resource sites have been documented on the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.  Examples include prehistoric archaeological sites such as Layser Cave on the Cowlitz Valley District, historic Native American sites such as the Big Tire Peeled Cedars, Mt. Adams District, and historic structures such as House Rock Shelter, an emergency fire lookout, Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument.

Heritage resource surveys for projects such as timber sales, stream bank stabilization, or roadside viewpoint construction are a routine part of program activities.  Surveys are oriented toward the discovery and documentation of significant heritage resources.  Other aspects of the program include historical research, collections curation, interpretation, public involvement, and coordination with tribal groups with traditional ties to the land.

Peeled cedar trees in the upper Lewis

River drainage reflect traditional uses

of the national forest by native people.

 

 

The Civilian Conservation Corps and The National Forests

US Forest Service
Gifford Pinchot National Forest - Vancouver, WA
Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument - Amboy, WA
Last Modified: Friday, 21 March 2008 at 18:28:47 EDT