Timescapes in conflict: cumulative impacts on a solar calendar

Abstract

This paper contributes an analog case for assessing cumulative impacts. An American Indian solar calendar was identified in the first large-scale power line environmental impact assessment (EIA) in an isolated region of southern Utah in 1983. That study identified increased access as a potential adverse impact, but that the solar calendar would be best protected by a commitment of silence. During the next 25 years, five utility projects were placed in this corridor. In 2006, an American Indian study team revisited the site and found it and the pilgrimage trail to it exposed to recreational visitors and partially damaged. Indian leaders chose to now publicly discuss the site so they can recommend in a new EIA mitigations to protect the solar calendar by restricting access and interpretative signs.