As the National Park Service continues to recover from perhaps the darkest chapter in its history at Effigy Mounds National Monument, officials are developing a Cultural Landscape Report and Environmental Assessment to understand exactly what the monument's landscape contains and to develop a management plan going forward.

A draft version of the document was released Thursday, and public comment will be taken on it through March 25. Once finalized, the document will not only provide a baseline of sorts of what is known about the monument's landscape -- its origins, evolution over time, cultural features and current conditions -- but it draws up a management plan.

"In short," said Superintendent Jim Nepstad, "this is a critically important document for Effigy Mounds National Monument. It provides park staff with both the how and the why when it comes to management practices involving the mounds and their surrounding landscape."

The report, which was begun in 2013, followed an incident in which ancestral burial grounds and ceremonial mounds within the monument that are considered sacred by a dozen Native American tribes were desecrated by Park Service managers who "clearly knew what they were doing was against the law" during a decade-long campaign of building boardwalks and trails across the monument grounds, according to a voluminous investigation. 

Though news of the actual damage to archaeological sites in the national monument located in Iowa surfaced in 2010, details of the investigative report that surfaced in 2014 point to a longstanding disregard or ignorance of state and federal laws created to protect this country's archaeological resources.

The draft Cultural Landscape and Environmental Assessment report describes the 2,526-acre monument in eastern Iowa as being "characterized by forested uplands, steep bluffs, floodplain terraces, and swift cutting streams channeling into the bedrock terrain on the west bank of the Mississippi River. More than 200 conical, linear, compound and effigy mounds constructed between 500 BC and AD 1300 are located within the monument. The monument also contains other archaeological sites."

According to Superintendent Nepstad, the cultural landscape report was prepared with "close coordination with 20 American Indian tribes, Iowa's State Historic Preservation Office, and the Office of the State Archaeologist."

"If you want a good plan, you bring in good people," he explained in a release. "Now we're hoping the public will give it a look and let us know how it might be further improved or strengthened. Weighing in at 400+ pages, the Draft CLR/EA is a hefty document. But readers with an interest in the park will find it extremely informative."

Interestingly, this is the first time since the monument was established in 1949 that such a document has been prepared. Superintendent Nepstad, who was brought to the park in 2011 to help it move past the prior mismanagement, didn't know why previous management teams haven't tackled such a project, which can take years of work to produce. He did speculate that funding issues played a role.

“Obviously, I can only answer to my era in the park, which started in 2011," he said during a phone call Thursday. "Prior to that, I know the park did have a request in the pipeline for the funding for a cultural landscape report. It’s not like there was never a complete disinterest in doing something like this.”

He also wouldn't speculate whether the mismanagement of the monument pushed the park's funding request to the top of the list, but did say that, "it’s obvious that something like this is needed here."

The Environmental Assessment portion of the document weighs different treatment alternatives against the park's current practices. One alternative features a mound-centered preservation approach, and another features a broader landscape rehabilitation approach.

The landscape treatment emphasizes rehabilitating landscape context by preserving mounds and other extant above- and below- grade archeological features and restoring native plant communities to provide a broad landscape context for interpretation and education of the significance of the landscape. Restoration of large areas of prairie and oak savanna plant communities in selected areas, to represent landscape conditions during the era of mound construction, will reveal relationships between mounds and the river, sky, and surrounding topography...

Future management of the Monument is guided by a rehabilitation approach with an emphasis on preservation of mounds and other archeological resources, restoration of native plant communities, and education of visitors to enhance understanding of the mounds as part of American Indian culture (past and present). The Monument will seek to provide opportunities for visitors to learn about American Indian culture related to the landscape, through the perspective of American Indian Nations. Management of the landscape will seek to provide an environment and/or opportunities for American Indian youth to spend time in the landscape according to tribal protocols

Park staff will be hosting a pair of open houses to discuss the Draft CLR/EA, answer questions, and receive input. The first meeting will be held on March 7, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the Marquette City Hall, located at 88 North Street in Marquette, Iowa. The second meeting will be held on March 9, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Effigy Mounds National Monument Visitor Center, located 3 miles north of Marquette on Highway 76.

The document is available for download at http://parkplanning.nps.gov/efmoclr. Comments may be submitted electronically from the project home page at http://parkplanning.nps.gov/efmoclrpage, or mailed to the park at Effigy Mounds National Monument, 151 HWY 76, Harpers Ferry, IA 52146. To receive consideration, comments must be received by the end of the day on March 25, 2016. For more information, or for questions about the Draft Cultural Landscape Report, please contact Superintendent Jim Nepstad at [email protected] or 563-873-3491, extension 101, or Cultural Resource Program Manager Albert LeBeau at [email protected] or 563-873-3491, extension 501.

Traveler footnote: Additional background on the problems at Effigy Mounds National Monument:

National Park Service Officials Disavow Scathing Report On Effigy Mounds Desecration