PORT ANGELES – A city archaeologist is at work to survey the waterfront and create policy.
Derek Beery, 35, started as the Port Angeles archaeologist on Sept. 28.
City officials announced the hiring on Tuesday.
“What I will be doing is examining the different areas of the waterfront of the city and making a model of what the probability that [archeological] sites lie on those areas,” Beery said.
The five-year position is funded by settlement money from the botched graving yard project that uncovered the 2,400-year-old Tse-whit-zen village.
Beery will survey the city’s waterfront, create policy and offer advice to the city about where historically significant sites could be found and how to handle them.
He will work closely with the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe and the Port of Port Angeles, which owns significant amounts of waterfront land.
Beery will be involved in the planning and review of all construction projects that are state and federally funded, and therefore require archeological review.
Beery will create a predictive model based on what sites have already been found, as well as where sites are most likely based on traditional access to food and fresh water.
