Annual Report for Heritage Monitoring Scouts 2018-2019

       

Heritage Monitoring Scouts (HMS Florida)

Annual Report August 1, 2018- July 30, 2019

Sarah E. Miller and Emily Jane Murray

Florida Public Archaeology Network | November 18, 2019 revised March 17, 2021

HMS Florida Celebrates Third Year

Historical resources in Florida are in danger from impacts of climate change including increased storminess, rising temperatures, and sea level rise. An estimated 6,874 archaeological sites will be underwater with a 2 m (6.6 foot) rise in sea level in Florida alone (Anderson et al. 2017). In response to this threat, the Florida Public Archaeology Network launched Heritage Monitoring Scouts (HMS Florida) in 2016, a citizen science program focused on tracking changes to heritage sites at risk, particularly those impacted by climate change in the form of erosion and sea level rise. This report is a follow up to previous HMS reports from first (2016-2017) and second (2017-2018) years of the program.  Over the course of HMS Florida's third year an additional 168 new people applied to become Heritage Monitoring Scouts, agreed to the ethics statement to do no harm to sites, and received 12 monthly updates on training and resources. Scouts submitted 413 monitoring reports on 374 individual sites during the second year, bringing the overall total to 948 sites monitored as of July 31, 2019. 

Highlights from the 3rd year of HMS Florida.

Program Accomplishments 2018-2019

Monitoring Blitz!

The West Central/Central FPAN crew partnered up with the Division of Historical Resources, Bureau of Archaeological Research, and Department of Environmental Protection aquatic preserve staff to revisit sites within the Big Bend Aquatic Preserve. The Blitz aimed to monitor approximately 30 sites over a handful of days, many of which had not been visited by an archaeologist in decades. The Blitz provided a new model of partnership and pacing that many in FPAN hope to apply to sites to be visited during the 2019-2021 HMS Florida grant project. 

Jeff Moates fills out a HMS Florida monitoring form during the Blitz.

HMS Florida monitor retreats from site impacted from sea level rise.

Tidally United Summit in Sarasota

The third annual  Tidally United: Cultural Resources Shoreline Monitoring and Public Engagement Summit took place August 10-11, 2018 at New College and Payne Park Auditorium in Sarasota. Partners for the summit included the Historic Spanish Point, New College, Alliance for Weedon Island Archaeological Research and Education (AWIARE), Time Sifters Archaeology Society, South Florida Museum (now the Bishop Museum of Science and Nature), Archaeological Consultants, Inc., and Little Greek. Highlights from the formal day of papers include Dr. Jessi Halligan’s keynote “Drowned Deserts, Breached Beaches, and Sunken Springs,”  planning and practice panel and perspective case studies, highlights from HMS Florida around the state, launch of the Coastal Heritage at Risk Taskforce, and elected official candidate forum.

Highlights from the 3rd annual Tidally United Summit.

Thanks to Historic Spanish Point for hosting field day!

Historic Spanish Point hosted the second informal workshop day with introductory workshop to HMS Florida, documentation and preservation demonstrations, and cemetery monitoring and transcription portion, all in addition to guided tour of the park.  

For more information check out the official website for the current year of Tidally United and the archive of past summits listed on the website.

Community Conversations on Heritage at Risk

Inspired by workshops held during the Learning from Loss program sponsored by the Scottish Universities Insight Institute through a grant submitted by Tom Dawson and Joanna Hambly at University of St. Andrews, three community workshops were held for the purpose of listening to the public about coastal heritage concerns.

Emily Jane Murray (FPAN) and Allyson Ropp (LAMP) lead the community on a coastal walk.

Members of the community continue to deliberate on coastal heritage in small and large group discussion.

Continued evaluation of Community Engagement Levels  

As a public engagement program, HMS Florida is evaluated not only by how many sites are visited each year, but in the context of frameworks including Rosenblatt's engagement pyramid model. Since the launch in August 2016, a conservative estimate of 70,000 people observe and follow the program measured by members of the EnvArch Facebook page, page views on the HMS Florida landing page, and media coverage (see 2018-2019 list below). A total of 629 Scouts have signed up for the program to date with 168 new applicants approved during HMS Florida's 3^rd. Scouts stay active by submitting monitoring forms, with some scouts covering multiple sites over the course of the year. FPAN staff are currently leading the program, but several independent scouts are working up the pyramid by training others and leading monitoring events on their own. For the third year report, increase in FPAN staff activity is noted and rate of new scouts remains steady (199 last year, 168 this year).  

Scout Activity Reports

• 168 applications received and accepted, all have signed ethics statement
• Applicants from 34 counties in 85 different Florida communities, 1 out of state
• Scouts monitored 374 different sites during 2018-2019, cumulative total of 948 with 128 sites monitored in multiple years
• Data gaps -- 26 sites reported not listed on the Florida Master Site File
• 32 Contributing Scouts (1+ site monitored) 
• Scouts received 12 updates and challenges over the course of the year

Summary of Sites Monitored

The majority of sites monitored HMS Florida continue to be those on state land, followed by private, then federal, county, city, and a handful of unknown ownership. While the number of different sites monitored decreased slightly from 438 last year to 374 this year, it is encouraging to see an increase in previously monitored sites from 48 last year to 128 this year as monitoring requires subsequent visits to record change to sites over time. For 2018-2019 the number of federal sites monitored increased. The number of unknown ownership types decreased that suggests monitoring through Arches portal has helped increased accuracy in reporting and maintaining consistent records.

Looking at sites monitored, 75% are archaeological sites. Monitored structures decreased. With the pilot program to monitor structures from previous years and integration of a structures form into Arches, so far the resources to integrate structures into the program has not been widely successful. As HMS Florida is a program of the Florida Public Archaeology Network, it stands to reason that structures are not at the core mission of the organization and therefore support to monitor structures is not in place. However, when FPAN staff held evening monitoring opportunities for Scouts, there was little public interest and several events canceled. Time will tell if land managers find the structures monitoring feature useful in Arches, but in response to waning public interest structural monitoring will not remain an emphasis in the program going forward.  

In looking more closely at archaeological sites monitored, precolonial sites held at a steady percentage of the sites monitored from previous years. A noted increase was observed in shipwrecks monitored through HMS Florida, from 4 percent the first year and 6 percent the second year, to now 10 percent of archaeological sites monitored. This increase suggests Submerged HMS programs have been successful in increasing monitoring of underwater resources, which resulted in FPAN merging the Submerged HMS program with the previous existing SSEAS  (part one) program.

Not all of the statistics currently available for HMS Florida make sense. In looking at sites monitored in terms of threat level and condition, it is not clear HMS Florida is currently focusing on sites at the greatest risk. Several factors complicate these statistics: variability in scout assessment of condition and threats, transitioning from the easy to use beta form to the Arches portal, and opportunistic monitoring versus prioritization strategies in place. These represent the current growing pains of the HMS Florida program. Good news: help is on the way. The Heritage Monitoring Scout program received full funding from the Florida Department of State Division of Historical Resources special category grant. The issue of prioritization will be a focus on HMS Florida next year as good condition but high threat level sites have not necessarily meant a site was a high priority as HMS Florida was developed. High priority meant some change was happening to the site or it needed immediate follow up, versus the site is a high priority to monitor. The difference may be subtle, but graphs such as the one below demonstrate further refinement of monitoring terms is needed and will be addressed next fiscal year.

Program Reach and Coverage

In HMS Florida's third year, we saw continued activity across the state in 49 counties. The first graph below shows the various ways the program is active, depending on where Scouts live, where they monitor, where training events occur, and where partner organizations are located. While some the program became active in several new counties (Glades, Gulf, Jefferson, Layfayette and Marion), activity also stopped in several that were active in the first two years of programming. The program has cumulatively never been active in Calhoun, DeSoto, Gadsden, Hardee, Highlands, Union, and Washington Counties. The following heat maps represent where all activities are taking place, where scouts live, and where scouts are monitoring. 

Data reflects the scouts home address as listed in their scout application and profile.

Media Coverage 

At Florida's gateway to space, archaeologists are in a race against time (Florida Today)

The New Vanguard Protecting Historic Sites from Sea Level Rise: Volunteers (Adapt Florida)

America Adapts Podcast: Keeping History Above Water - St. Augustine, Cultural Heritage, and Sea Level Rise (America Adapts Podcast)

Program Improvements

Heritage Emergency and Response Training

In December Sarah Miller attended HEART training sponsored by the Smithsonian and FEMA. During the training, she was inspired by the annual May Day exercise held by the Smithsonian where they practice the Incident Command System and drill responding to threats to archives and collections. In May 2019, FPAN Northeast partnered with St. Johns County and the St. Augustine Archival Society to host the first May Day exercise in Florida at Government House in St. Augustine. Participants attended an introduction to ICS presentation and showed up May 1^st to be assigned a role on the Incident Command Team and evacuate a collection threatened by a scenario written with assistance by Matt Armstrong and Mercedes Harrold.   

Special Category Grant Awarded 2019-2021

The Heritage Monitoring Scout grant received full funding from the Florida Department of State Division of Historical Resources. The project aims to monitor 500 sites at risk throughout the state. The project also includes 3D scanning of a minimum of 12 sites to record baseline levels and demonstrate change over time measured using digital data. A Program Manager and Database Manager will officially join the HMS Florida team. Due to reporting requirements from the state, the annual reporting year for HMS Florida will shift from August 1-July 30^th to July 1-June 30^th starting next year.

HMS Florida Special Category grant through the Department of State is funded July 2019-June 2021!

Database Updates  

Updates to the Arches management system, developed by the Getty Conservation Institute and World Monuments Fund, continued for a third year. Major improvements include migration of all the beta form data into Arches and improved work flow for Scouts. Thanks to Paulette MacFadden at BAR the ARM training now features an Arches training session to improve accessibility for land managers, which has also helped to standardize training on the new system for other users. We continue to work with developer Adam Cox at Legion GIS on updates and improvements and hope to take advantages of the Arches app set to launch in fall 2019. Data from monitoring forms demonstrate the migration from google based forms to Arches is a success and a diversity of volunteers, land managers, and FPAN staff are able to log on and use the system to document their visits.

HMS Florida Partners by County

ALACHUA

University of Florida

Florida Museum of Natural History

University of Florida - IFAS

BAY

Camp Helen State Park

Gulf Coast State College

St. Andrews State Park

BREVARD

Florida Solar Energy Center

Sams House at Pine Island Preserve

Space Coast Science Education Alliance

BROWARD

Native Learning Center

CHARLOTTE

Charlotte County History Center

Charlotte County Environmental Center

Charlotte Harbor Aquatic Preserves

CITRUS

Gulf Archaeology Research Institute

Crystal River State Park

Big Bend Seagrasses Aquatic Preserve

St. Martin’s Marsh Aquatic Preserve

CLAY

Clay County Archives

COLLIER

Conservation Collier

Rookery Bay NERR

DADE

Florida International University

History Miami

DUVAL

University of North Florida

North Florida Land Trust

ESCAMBIA

Destination Archaeology Resource Center

Goat Lips Chew and Brewhouse

University of West Florida

Big Lagoon State Park

Tarkiln Bayou Preserve State Park

FLAGLER

Bings Landing County Park

Marineland Dolphin Adventures

River to Sea Preserve

Fort Matanzas National Monument

Washington Oaks Garden State Park

FRANKLIN

Apalachicola National Estuary Research Reserve

HENDRY

Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Seminole Indian Museum

Seminole Tribe of Florida Tribal Historic Preservation Office

HILLSBOROUGH

University of South Florida

LAKE

Trout Lake Nature Preserve

LEE

Randell Research Center

Cape Coral Library

Koreshan State Historic Site

South County Regional Library

Mound House

IMAG History and Science Center

MANATEE

Emerson Point Preserve

Manatee County Parks and Recreation

Time Sifters Archaeological Society

MARTIN

Gilbert’s Bar and House of Refuge

NASSAU

Amelia Island Museum of History

City of Fernandina Beach

Fort Clinch State Park

IFAS Nassau Extension Office

Friends of Bosque Bello Cemetery

SCUBA Station

OKALOOSA

City of Mary Ester

Mary Ester Public Library

ORANGE

University of Central Florida, Department of Anthropology

PALM BEACH

Florida Atlantic University

PINELLAS

Central Gulf Coast Archaeological Society

Weeden Island Preserve Cultural and Natural History Center

PUTNAM

Log Cabin Winery

Historic Melrose, Inc

Town of Welaka

Dunns Creek State Park

SANTA ROSA

City of Gulf Breeze

Navarre Public Library

Escribano Point Wildlife Management Area

SARASOTA

New College

ST. JOHNS

Flagler College

Flagler College Archaeology Club

GTM Research Reserve

Guana River Wildlife Management Area

Historic Tours of America

Northeast Florida Aquatic Preserves

St. Augustine Archaeological Association

St Johns County Environmental Division

St. Johns County Public Library

St. Augustine Lighthouse and Maritime Museum

St. Augustine Distillery

St. Augustine Archaeological Association

Favor Dykes State Park

ST. LUCIE

Richard E. Becker Preserve

St. Lucie Parks and Recreation

VOLUSIA

New Smyrna Museum of History

Town of Ponce Inlet

Ormond Beach Environmental Discovery Center

Tomoka Basin State Parks

Canaveral National Seashore

WALTON

Eden Gardens State Park

STATEWIDE/NATIONAL

Environmental Remediation and Recovery, Inc.

Florida Archaeological Council

Florida Anthropological Society

Florida Coastal Office

Florida Department of Historical Resources

Florida Trust for Historic Preservation

Florida Master Naturalist Program

National Park Service

National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Association

INTERNATIONAL

SCAPE

CHERISH

CITiZAN

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

HMS Florida would not be possible without the hard work of all FPAN staff across the state: William Lees, Della Scott-Ireton, Mike Thomin, Barbara Clark, Nicole Grinnan, Tristan Harrenstein, Jeff Moates, Kassie Kemp, Nigel Rudolph, Rachael Kangas, Sara Ayers-Rigsby, Mal Fenn, Emma Dietrich, and Robbie Boggs. Kevin Gidusko and Brittany Yabczanka have moved on from FPAN but we sincerely thank them for their efforts to establish HMS Florida and creativity they brought to the team. 

We also want to thank the Bureau of Archaeological Research in Florida's Division of Historical Resources staff who were again instrumental to the success of the program: State Archaeologist Mary Glowacki, Paulette McFadden, Josh Goodwin, and Ryan Duggins; Vincent Birdsong at Florida Master Site File; David Morgan and Margo Schwadron at Southeast Archaeological Center (NPS). Julia Duggins has moved on to Paleo West but during her time at the state made a substantial contribution to the growth of HMS Florida. And special thanks to William Stanton and Florida State Parks for fostering site stewardsip opportunities for Scouts and land managers.

And all of HMS Florida volunteers currently monitoring heritage sites in Florida.

Works Cited  

Anderson DG, Bissett TG, Yerka SJ, Wells JJ, Kansa EC, Kansa SW, et al. (2017) Sea-level rise and archaeological site destruction: An example from the southeastern United States using DINAA (Digital Index of North American Archaeology). PLoS ONE 12(11): e0188142. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0188142

2016-2017 annual report for HMS Florida available here.

2017-2018 annual report for available here. 

Text and images: Sarah Miller and Emily Jane Murray, FPAN staff except where noted.

Based on "HMS Florida Year in Review, 2018-2019," paper presented by Sarah E. Miller and Emily Jane Murray at Tidally United August 16, 2019, Pensacola, Florida.