STATEMENT OF INTEREST
PACIFIC NORTHWEST OR COLORADO PLATEAU CESU
NUMBER W912HZ-18-SOI-0013
PROJECT TO BE INITIATED IN FY 2018
Project Title: Archaeological Research
Portland District, Willamette Valley Project, Oregon
Responses to this Request for Statements of Interest (SOI) will be used to identify potential researchers to oversee an archaeological applied research and field investigations project to be funded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Portland District, Willamette Valley Project (WVP) covering 13 Operating Project locations in Northwest Oregon. Approximately $270,000 is expected to be available to support this project for one (1) year. Additional funding may be available for follow on work for up to four (4) years at $370,000 per year for a total of $1,750,000 over five (5) years.
Background:
Congress authorized Portland District Corps, to acquire lands within the Willamette River Basin and construct 13 dams and their associated lakes or reservoirs, which include Detroit, Green Peter, Blue River, Cougar, Fall Creek, Lookout Point, Hills Creek, Dorena, Fern Ridge, and Cottage Grove dams and the Big Cliff, Dexter and Foster reregulating dams, creating the Willamette Valley Project. At the time of dam construction (1940-1969), the federal laws protecting historic properties were not yet in place. The defined purposes for these various dams include flood risk management, hydropower generation, water quality improvement, irrigation water supply, recreation, navigation, and fish and wildlife habitat. In addition to the management of these facilities for these authorized purposes, management of project lands that are not routinely inundated includes activities such as land-based support facilities for water control, facilities and measures for recreation, general public use, access, and the enhancement of the environment, fish and wildlife. Combined, both the direct operations of these projects as well as supporting activities result in adverse effects to evaluated and unevaluated properties potentially eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.
The majority of project lands have not yet been systematically surveyed for cultural and historic resources, and many previous survey efforts do not meet current standards. There are over 300 known historic and pre-contact sites on 55,000 acres of WVP lands with large gaps in landscape-level knowledge of human habitation. Roughly 45% of the acreage is seasonally inundated lakebeds of dammed reservoirs, which are drawn down from October through February to capture winter rainfall. Prior survey efforts that followed existing state guidelines have not been effective in answering WVP cultural resource management questions. Corps Technical Report EL-96-7: Impacts to Historic Properties in Drawdown Zones at Corps of Engineers Reservoirs, does not provide specific guidance for our unique situation in the Columbia and Willamette basins.
The Willamette Valley reservoirs have long been locations for artifact collectors because of the seasonal draw downs and the exposed artifacts on the surface. Important temporally diagnostic artifacts, such as projectile points and old bottles are illegally collected on a regular basis continuously reducing the available record.
The purpose of this project is to develop new methodologies and/or protocols to effectively survey for and evaluate cultural resources in Pacific Northwest reservoir and floodplain environments. Additionally, the project will update the pre-contact and historical context from a regional perspective. The WVP lands are uniquely suited to answer these larger research questions on settlement, subsistence or land use patterns since they are located along major tributaries which were prominent lifeways for native peoples. The research may also reflect cultural adaptions to changing climate and resource availability.
Brief Description of Anticipated Work:
This project will develop new surface and subsurface methodologies and/or protocols to effectively gather useful information through surveys and evaluations of cultural resources in Pacific Northwest reservoir and floodplain environments. These guidelines should include localized sub-drainage basin variability for both the upland and seasonally inundated environments, and be field tested for practicality and effectiveness. The new standard methods in the valley and foothills depositional environments will address the particularities of reservoir effects, such as erosion, deflation, sedimentation and lateral artifact movement.
Protocols should include seasonal guidelines for surveys, testing current standards of late summer and fall when vegetation is dormant to improve ground visibility, or October through February for seasonal reservoir draw-downs. However, regional differences will exist based on elevation, snow and rainfall levels, and lake erosion and sedimentation rates. This methodologies and survey protocols will be tested in the field using traditional field methods (pedestrian survey, shovel tests, test units) and new technologies, such as remote sensing, ground penetrating radar, or advanced GIS modeling, as appropriate.
The project will also update the pre-contact and historical context from a regional perspective. This could include regional radiocarbon synthesis, including Bayesian analysis, or improving and refining projectile point classifications and seriation with digital analytic procedures. Data analysis will be for new and previously recorded archaeological resources, and may examine slope, inundation levels, property boundaries, and environmental variants that may have influenced pre-contact and historic settlement, transportation, and resource procurement strategies. Geomorphic modeling, such as flow rates and release velocities and their effects on sediment depth, erosion, and accretion, may be investigated to inform future long term management considerations of cultural resource sites.
This project will support improved current and future management of cultural resources on WVP lands, and contribute to the greater regional understanding of cultural resources for all researchers working in the Pacific Northwest. The information generated will be applicable in research of other reservoir environments, and contribute to flood risk, navigation, hydropower, and other water management practices.
In subsequent years, additional anthropological and/or archeological support may be required to evaluate and report out on the volume of collected data and perform overarching syntheses of information in relation to overall cultural resources management.
Full Announcement Attached Below
Materials Requested for Statement of Interest/Qualifications:
Please provide the following via e-mail attachment to:
Deberay.R.Carmichael@usace.army.mil Maximum length: 2 pages, single-spaced 12 pt. font.
1. Name, Organization and Contact Information
2. Brief Statement of Qualifications (including):
a. Biographical Sketch,
b. Relevant past projects and clients with brief descriptions of these projects,
c. Staff, faculty or students available to work on this project and their areas of expertise,
d. Any brief description of capabilities to successfully complete the project you may wish to add (e.g. equipment, laboratory facilities, greenhouse facilities, field facilities, etc.).
Note: A proposed budget is NOT requested at this time.
Review of Statements Received: Based on a review of the Statements of Interest received, an investigator or investigators will be invited to prepare a full study proposal. Statements will be evaluated based on the investigator’s specific experience and capabilities in areas related to the study requirements. Additionally, the evaluation method and selection criteria for research and development awards must be: (1) The Technical merits of the proposed research and development; and (2) Potential relationship of the proposed research and development to the Department of Defense missions.
Please send responses or direct questions to:
Deberay R. Carmichael
U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) ERDC Contracting Office (ECO)
3909 Halls Ferry Road Vicksburg, MS 39180
Deberay.R.Carmichael@usace.army.mil
Timeline for Review of Statements of Interest: Review of Statements of Interest will begin after the SOI has been posted on the CESU website for 10 working days.
Revised W912HZ-18-SOI-0013_Arch_Research_Willamette_Valley