The stewardship of these nonrenewable resources is an important link in the conservation ethic that underlies the NRCS mission. Agency policy stresses that cultural resources be identified early in the planning process and that alternatives to protect and conserve these resources be considered during planning. Policy also encompasses guidance about training employees, informing landowners, and working with local, state, and other federal agencies and the public for the protection of significant cultural resources. A departmental emphasis on assistance to Native American Tribes, Hawaiians, and Alaskans is also considered by the recognition of Traditional Cultural Properties and presence of human burials that require slightly different considerations in terms of consultation procedures and legal aspects. CRSs and CRCs also work closely with the SHPO and other state agencies, private organizations, Department of the Interior, and ACHP to implement new requirements, develop compliance strategies, and establish partnerships and cooperative agreements.
Cultural resources provide many important public benefits.
They can provide information on solving conservation problems by studying resource use in the past, we can learn which practices were destructive and resulted in depletion of resources and which were successful. They also tell about environmental fluctuations since archaeological sites provide a much longer record of climatic variation than do historic records. Information on rainfall and water flow fluctuations and pollen, plants and sediment studies can assist planners in designing water control projects. Cultural resources provide insights to the relationship between people and their environments. By understanding how changing environments affected people in the past, we can better understand our relationship with the natural environment.