Sinsky, Katherine A., authorLaBelle, Jason M., advisorPante, Michael C., committee memberLittle, Ann M., committee member2021-01-112021-01-112020https://hdl.handle.net/10217/219536This thesis evaluates the long-term effects of wildfire on the integrity and visibility of prehistoric surface sites. Covering roughly 38 million acres of the Western hemisphere, ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests rely on fire as a critical and defining element of these ecosystems, but climate change and poor land management have altered forest conditions and allowed severe crown fires to destroy forests that were previously characterized by milder ground fires (Rockman 2015; Westerling et al. 2014; Yue et al. 2013). Today's high severity wildfires result in major ecological changes and are unprecedented in their suppression costs, property losses, and loss of life. Wildfire is a powerful but often overlooked archaeological site formation process, and knowing its effects is critical to understand the character of survey inventories and surface sites in burned areas (Schiffer 1983). Two primary research questions guide this study: in what ways and to what degree do post-fire ecological changes impact prehistoric site integrity, and what are the implications for archaeological data collection and interpretation. Archaeological site data collected at different times in relation to a high-severity 2002 wildfire are evaluated to identify measurable impacts, including PR1 (previously recorded, pre-fire) and PR2 (relocated, post-fire) records of the same fifty (50) sites, and data from newly identified (n=40) and non-relocated sites (n=22). Results show that long-term wildfire effects altered the surface expressions of all prehistoric sites identified in the 1,500-acre study area in 2018 (n=90). Comparative analyses of site data reveal significant changes in both assemblage content (artifacts and features) and site area (m2) in relocated sites. Implications for cultural resource management in fire-prone and burned areas are discussed.born digitalmasters thesesengCopyright and other restrictions may apply. User is responsible for compliance with all applicable laws. For information about copyright law, please see https://libguides.colostate.edu/copyright.CRMsouthwestwildfirepuebloanarchaeologyUSFSText