Abstract

The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) identifies and protects cultural resources through the forest management planning process. The problem that presents itself to cultural resource managers in northern Ontario, as well as much of the rest of the Canadian boreal forest, is one where the resources are known to exist, but their exact locations are unknown. So how does one manage a resource that we know exists but we don't know where it is? In the late 1980s, MNR identified archaeological predictive modelling as a means of addressing this situation and, given available knowledge, providing the best statement regarding the likelihood of archaeological resource existence. The MNR sponsored three years of research and development that led to a first generation predictive model. This was followed by three years of pilot projects which served to expand the applied base of the model from the original research and development area in northwestern Ontario and also to develop various means by which existing Ontario government digital databases can be incorporated into the archaeological predictive modelling process. The MNR is now at a stage where it is ready to employ archaeological predictive models as a cultural resource management tool in all new forest management plans - an area encompassing 45 million hectares of forested land.