Blog
By Britt Romano
January 16, 2017
Introduction to CRM Part 2: Development Screening and Project Planning
The first step of a historic resources impact assessment (HRIA) happens in the office. Once we have the plan for a development, we need to assess whether the footprint will impact any recorded sites or if it has the potential to impact any unrecorded sites. We use our experience and knowledge of archaeology, GIS data,
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By Britt Romano
January 9, 2017
Introduction to CRM Part 1: Cultural Resource Management
Cultural Resource Management (CRM) is undertaken in many different countries all over the world and it can go by just as many names, Contract Archaeology, Consulting Archaeology, Compliance Archaeology, and Heritage Resource Management (HRM) to name a few. Whatever CRM is called, the underlying purpose is always the same. These archaeologists engage in the protection,
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By Kurtis Blaikie-Birkigt
December 5, 2016
Archaeology Risk Management Plans?
In a previous blog post, I wrote about how remediation and archaeological impact assessment pose very similar problems, from a technical perspective. In both cases, there is something in the ground, and we need to figure out where, how much, and what to do about it. My impression is that remediation is well ahead of
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By Elenore
November 14, 2016
Careers in Archaeology
Consulting The most common career in archaeology is that of a consulting archaeologist. Consulting archaeologists work in the field of Historic Resource Management or Cultural Resource Management (CRM). People in this line of work generally work on Historic Resource Impact Assessments of planned developments before construction is started. The responsibility of consulting archaeologists is to
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By Britt Romano
November 9, 2016
St. Louis Catholic Church
We get to do a lot of traveling around Alberta during the summer. Sometimes when time permits, we get to stop at local attractions. During a recent trip to Fort Vermilion we made a stop at St. Louis Catholic Church in what is locally referred to as ‘Buttertown’. This church was built in 1906-1909. Check
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By Corey Cookson
November 2, 2016
Slave Lake Plane Crash
In the summer of 2013, Vince and I were walking through a harvested cutblock south of Slave Lake and we noticed something big and white on a high hill along the tree line. At first we thought it was some sort of tarp but as we got closer we realized it was the broken tail
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By Madeline Coleman
October 19, 2016
Can you find the flakes?
It’s not all sand, toothbrushes, and dust pans for consulting archaeologists. More often than not we find ourselves digging on aluvial fans. In other words, gravel bars created by glaciers, or even old beach shores. That doesn’t mean gravel is sterile. How many flakes can you find in this screen? Scroll down to find out
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By Reid Graham
September 20, 2016
Glacial Lakes around Lesser Slave Lake
Where we find archaeological sites in the province is often strongly tied to the physical environment. We look for the different physical characteristics such as distance to water and if an area is high and dry. These features are indicators, which tell us that there could be an archaeological site in the area. This approach to
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By Kurtis Blaikie-Birkigt
July 8, 2016
Archaeology in the Fort McMurray Fire
At the end of June we started work on planned fire salvage harvest blocks for Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries, southeast of Anzac Alberta. This was the southeastern end of this springs massive Fort McMurray forest fire. When fire kills or damages a stand, there’s a limited time-frame within which the wood can still be salvaged for
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By Kurtis Blaikie-Birkigt
June 27, 2016
Why do we survey gravel pits?
Aggregate pit applications, even renewals, are regularly triggered for Historic Resources Impact Assessments in Alberta. This is mostly due to two factors: their location, and their impact levels. Good sand and gravel deposits are often located near watercourses, especially major rivers, and the presence of coarse parent sediment usually gives them better drainage than surrounding
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