Eighty-four percent of Nevada and thousands of historic artifacts are publicly owned and federally managed.

But federal agencies are overwhelmed by the task of protecting and monitoring so many sites. They are asking for help from the owners: local residents.

The state Historic Preservation Office in Nevada is looking for volunteer partners to adopt a designated site located on public land. Saturday, Feb 16, at 9 a.m. at the Pahrump Valley Museum, volunteers were trained as official archaeological site stewards.

Sali Underwood, site stewardship coordinator, lectured to more than 15 individuals, mostly from Pahrump and Las Vegas, but some from as far away as Santa Barbara, Calif., and St. George, Utah. Everyone who attended the workshop wants to use part of their recreation time to help maintain culturally important natural areas.

Several more workshops are being planned in our region for people who would like to volunteer their help to manage our archeological sites. In late March another training will be held in Las Vegas, although the official date has not been set, and May 26, a training will be held in Gerlach. The training will coincide with the "Black Rock Rendevous Days" celebration.

The site stewardship program offers opportunities for people who enjoy the outdoors to help protect historic sites that are scattered across the vast spread of government-managed lands.

Sites being offered for stewardship have historic, prehistoric or paleontological (organic fossil) materials. These sites might need stewarding if they have old mining buildings or equipment located on them. A site could have prehistoric rock art or shelters, or a site may have lake bottom fossils on it.

Anyone over 18 without a serious criminal record is welcome to apply. Families are welcome to use the program to learn about archeology and civic duty while fostering a love of the outdoors, but someone over 18 needs to take formal responsibility for the site.

Sites are matched up to prospective volunteers according to a person's abilities and interests. A family might be given a site that is easy to get to, while a more adventurous person with a four-wheel drive vehicle may be given a site that is quite isolated and far from town.

Participants will attend a one-day class taught by volunteer Liz Russell to learn about the program. Various useful topics covered include archeology, state preservation laws, GPS tracking and outdoor skills. Volunteers will take an oath to carry out responsibilities to their best ability.

Responsibilities for taking care of the sites include visiting the land frequently, preferably at least four times a year, and recording any natural or human-caused changes. An unseasonable wildflower blooming might be a noteworthy observation and could signal to authorities that something unusual is amiss in the natural order of the area.

An equally important aspect of the position is checking to see if the site has been defaced or damaged by people. As more and more people start exploring our state's wilderness areas, some vandalize historical locations, while others may not realize the negative impact that they make.

Underwood wants the program to "open channels of communication between the general public and land managing agencies like the BLM."

By promoting partnership with residents the program hopes to give land-managing agencies more "eyes and ears" and lessen incidents of vandalism of historic sites and take a burden off law enforcement agencies as well.

"People should know that these sites are being watched," says Jon Schumacher. He and his wife, Sally, are stewarding a site about two hours from Pahrump.

The couple received their site in September 2007. It is quite large and difficult to reach, so they have not been able to visit enough to finish mapping it.

The couple loves the challenge of using their outdoor skills and knowledge to help protect the wilderness that they cherish. They attended stewardship training in Beatty in spring 2007.

"There is always something new or fun or interesting to see," says Sally Schumacher, whether "birds nesting in a rock shelter or 50 different kinds of flowers blooming."

If you are interested in attending a training seminar and becoming a site steward, please call Sali Underwood at 702-486-5011 or email her at: saunderw@clan.lib.nv.us.