travelRANGER87508: Petra: Next Steps towards…

Site Steward Foundation trip, SE Utah

Today we’re scheduled for our next conference call re: our return trip to Petra Archaeological Park (PAP). We’ll discuss our initiatives to help PAP: goals, objectives and the ever-present challenge of logistics. Finances? For peace of mind, and the Federal debt ceiling, let’s not go there. Fortunately, there is a very professional staff at the other end of the call that does the heavy lifting (and the bureaucracy can be a load).

Next week we are to have another call regarding a study tour for two of their mid-level managers (Tahani & Talal): they’ll be around the US Southwest in September visiting Grand Canyon, Mesa Verde, Canyon de Chelly, Santa Fe & Tucson. They’ll be looking at historic preservation, museum management & National Park Service management plus other topics (sound like a worthwhile excursion?). During there time in-around Santa Fe I hope to take them to some of our finer institutions: Museum of International Folk Art? Well yes, that too… I was thinking of La Choza, Harry’s Roadhouse, & Maria’s (New Mexican Kitchen).

Site Stewards

Today (post-call) I’m going to think about the many financially uncompensated hours (and miles) selflessly contributed to heritage and natural resource protection by volunteers. Many are professionals, like members of the New Mexico Archeological Council (NMAC), who go way “beyond the call” of duty to our vocation. Some organizations, like the Archaeological Society of New Mexico (ASNM), have professional and non-professional archaeological talent helping to shoulder-the-load. Of course another group of volunteers I’ve been intertwined with for some years now are the many stewards of the State SiteWatch and Santa Fe National Forest Site Steward Programs. They are quite a group of impressive individuals, and I don’t think we’ll ever be able to thank them enough (I sure won’t). In some regions of this state their combined efforts contribute over a work-year (2,080 hours) of volunteer time each year + the thousands of miles they drive in their own vehicles each year in helping us be better stewards of the non-renewable heritage sites we are entrusted to care for, for future generations. In addition to resource monitoring, they also help with site survey and public education & outreach projects. I’ll be traveling with colleagues in September to orient a new group of resource guardians in Hobbs, NM. That’ll be new territory for me and SiteWatch.

SiteWatch at Petroglyph Hill

I salute the myriad of volunteers out there that help us get-the-job-done. This double-Leo (that was born at sunrise on a Sunday) thinks the month of August is an appropriate one to convey our THANKS to those that “do it”/make-it-happen. Gracias a todos…