Cultural and Archaeological Resource Compliance
Utah is home to a wide variety of cultural/archaeological and paleontological resources that range in age from millions of years for natural history and 10,000+ years of human history. These resources are fragile and irreplaceable. They are part of our collective history. Cultural resources range from prehistoric rock art, dwellings, and artifact scatters to historic mines/mining debris, historic homesteads, and pioneer inscriptions, and much more.
Paleontological resources include both vertebrate and invertebrate fossils and trace fossils, including dinosaur footprints. All these resources are protected by federal and state laws. SITLA has the responsibility under these laws to manage these resources and to consider the effects on the resources within project areas.
It is important to remember that these federal and state laws prohibit collection of vertebrate fossils, certain trace fossils (such as dinosaur tracks), or any cultural/archaeological artifact. SITLA’s Rockhounding Permit does not authorize collection of any of these items.
ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIELDWORK AUTHORIZATION REQUIREMENT: SITLA requires state-permitted archaeologists to obtain written fieldwork authorization prior to conducting archaeological investigations on trust lands. Please find the links to the fillable pdf form and the memo outlining the system and other requirements for working on trust lands below:
