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PACIFIC LEGACY SERVICES

Exploring the past, informing the present, enriching the future.

Pacific Legacy offers a full spectrum of cultural resource services to our clients, conducted by top professionals in the respective subdisciplines. Whether you need an inventory of prehistoric archaeological resources, or a regulatory compliance document, Pacific Legacy has the requisite capabilities to serve you. Our services are provided for small and large projects alike, and we pride ourselves on tailoring our services to individual clients and project needs. We are staffed with the necessary number and blend of expertise to tackle the largest of cultural resource management projects, but we are also responsive to small projects, such as an inventory of one acre.

PREHISTORIC ARCHAEOLOGY

Pacific Legacy staff excels in prehistoric archaeology and have extensive experience in the Western United States, Hawai’i, and other areas in the Pacific Basin. Innovative approaches have been developed by the senior staff to address questions pertaining to past lifeways, adapting to differing environmental conditions, traditional technological innovations, and exchange and interaction networks. The goal of our studies is to provide a better understanding of how prehistoric people lived and adapted to different conditions.

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HISTORIC PERIOD ARCHAEOLOGY

Pacific Legacy provides expert services in documenting, researching, and managing historic period resources. We have completed hundreds of projects involving ranches and homesteads, mining landscapes, industrial sites, transportation corridors, and ethnic communities among other historic period resource types. We have performed the full range of management activities for these resources, including inventories, HABS/HAER documentation, and resource mitigation. Our experienced staff are well versed in historic period materials analysis and in archival research methods.

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GEOARCHAEOLOGY

Based on the need to understand landscape change throughout the Holocene, and how such change has impacted archaeological sites, geoarchaeological studies have recently become more commonplace in California and elsewhere. Pacific Legacy provides skilled geoarchaeological services, including sensitivity modeling, analysis of site formation processes, geomorphic mapping, and paleoenvironmental research to understand the geo-environmental context and history of archaeological sites. Geoarchaeological studies frequently assist in identifying and avoiding archaeological sites, as well as explaining patterns in archaeological data and contributing to archaeological studies. Having geoarchaeological capabilities serves to round out Pacific Legacy's suite of specialized subdisciplines to adeptly manage cultural resources in a holistic fashion.

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NATIVE AMERICAN CONSULTATION AND ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH

Pacific Legacy's ethnographic research focus has been on sacred lands, ethnohistory, and especially Native issues which involve the impact of non-Natives on Native cultures, and the improvement of communications between agencies/companies and Native Americans.  We are committed to both preservation and change, and particularly in the presentation of data to the general public so they can experience present and former Native domains with appreciation and sensitivity.

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OBSIDIAN HYDRATION SERVICES

Pacific Legacy has analyzed tens of thousands of obsidian artifacts from the western United States. Our advanced in-house obsidian hydration laboratory provides significant time and cost benefits over sending samples to outside vendors. Our lab is outfitted with an Olympus digital imaging and measurement system assisting in rapid and accurate measurement. Video capture and database capabilities allow us to graphically capture each measurement if required.

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LABORATORY ANALYSIS

Pacific Legacy regularly prepares archaeological collections for curation and we are well acquainted with the standard practices and requirements for permanently housing collections. Working in conjunction with our client, we determine the best location for curation of artifacts recovered from inventories undertaken for a project. We contact the chosen curatorial facility and make arrangements for the curation of the collections.

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ENERGY

Pacific Legacy’s industry experience is extensive and varied, including transportation, oil and gas development, hydroelectric power licensing, water control and conveyance, habitat restoration, timber harvest, mining, agriculture, communication, housing development, and national defense.

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TRANSPORTATION

The movement of people and materials characterizes the history of the American West, and is both subject of and cause for cultural resources management projects.

Senate Bill 1, the Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017, was signed into law on April 28, 2017. This legislative package invests $54  billion over the next decade to fix roads, freeways and bridges in communities across California and puts more dollars toward transit and safety. These funds will be split equally between state and local investments.

With our decades of experience in transportation projects, Pacific Legacy is  uniquely positioned to help our clients with the necessary regulatory compliance required to complete state, federal, and local assistance funded projects. 

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COMMUNICATIONS

The 1997 congressional mandate to build and update the nation’s communications infrastructure resulted in an explosion of new construction projects for fiber optic networks, cell towers and other wireless communication facilities. Deregulation and competition within the communications industry has led to a fast-paced regulatory environment in which compliance with NEPA, CEQA, NHPA, and state and local permit conditions demands a creative, extremely efficient approach to cultural resources management. Pacific Legacy has met the challenge, providing services that meet the needs of our clients while respecting the concerns of stakeholders in what are often contentious circumstances. We have successfully completed communications projects for GST, Worldcom, Sprint, Cingular, Verizon, Broadwing, Level 3 Communications, Pacific Bell, Southern Crossing, American Tower Corp., Crown Castle Incorporated, Nextel, Qwest, AT&T and Sygma Networks.

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