When a historic property will suffer an adverse effect from a federally-related undertaking, the federal agency, working with the Utah State Historic Preservation Office and other potential consulting parties, seeks ways to avoid, minimize, or mitigate the adverse effect.
Mitigation should represent the broader public interest by providing knowledge, enhancing the preservation of other historic properties, or creating other outcomes.
One common mitigation measure is data recovery – recording information about a property before it is destroyed by the undertaking.But many different creative mitigation approaches are possible.
Barns in northern Utah
A planned highway project in northern Utah would destroy several historic barns. For mitigation, the Utah Department of Transportation funded the restoration of several remaining barns. The work was accomplished by AmeriCorps workers.
Pine Valley guard station
The Dixie National Forest planned to sell its historic administrative site property in Enterprise, which it no longer used. As mitigation, it decided to restore and reuse the Pine Valley Guard Station as public lodging, available for overnight rentals.
Dugway’s German Village website
Due to lack of funding for maintenance, officials at Dugway Proving Grounds decided to let the “German Village”–the remains of German houses the army built during World War II in order to test the effects of bombing–deteriorate. To mitigate the Village’s lost, the army created a website that presents history, photos, and interviews. See it at https://www.dugway.army.mil/germanvillage/HOME.htm