[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 148 (Thursday, August 3, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 51333-51338]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-16569]


=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

ADVISORY COUNCIL ON HISTORIC PRESERVATION


Notice of Adoption of Policy Statement on Climate Change and 
Historic Preservation

AGENCY: Advisory Council on Historic Preservation.

ACTION: Notice of adoption of policy statement on climate change and 
historic preservation.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation has adopted its 
Policy Statement on Climate Change and Historic Preservation.

DATES: The policy statement was adopted on June 16, 2023.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Druscilla Null, (202) 517-1487, 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Advisory Council on Historic 
Preservation (ACHP), an independent federal agency created by the 
National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), works to promote the 
preservation, enhancement, and sustainable use of our nation's diverse 
historic resources, and advises the President and the Congress on 
national historic preservation policy.
    Under the NHPA, the ACHP's duties include advising the President 
and Congress on matters relating to historic preservation; recommending 
measures to coordinate activities of federal, state, and local agencies 
and private institutions and individuals related to historic 
preservation; and advising on the dissemination of information 
pertaining to those activities. In keeping with these mandates, in July 
2021 the ACHP initiated discussions regarding the impact of climate 
change on historic places and how the ACHP might advise and assist 
federal agencies and other stakeholders in addressing the issue.
    To focus ACHP efforts, Vice Chairman Jordan Tannenbaum (then acting 
ACHP Chair) convened the ACHP Climate Change and Historic Preservation 
Task Force, which first met in November 2021. In addition to Vice 
Chairman Tannenbaum and ACHP members Reno Franklin, Rick Gonzalez, 
Kristopher King, and Jay Vogt, the following agencies and organizations 
were represented on the Task Force: National Association of Tribal 
Historic Preservation Officers; National Conference of State Historic 
Preservation Officers; National Trust for Historic Preservation; 
Department of Defense; Department of Homeland Security; Department of 
Housing and Urban Development; Department of the Interior; Department 
of Transportation; Department of Veterans Affairs; and General Services 
Administration. Following her confirmation by the Senate in December 
2022 and subsequent swearing in, current ACHP Chair Sara C. Bronin also 
joined the task force.
    Based on task force meeting discussions, ACHP staff developed a 
draft policy statement that was reviewed by the task force. A revised 
draft of the policy statement was then developed and provided to the 
full ACHP membership for initial review. In March 2023, the members 
approved providing the draft to stakeholders and the public for 
comment. Two consultation events were held, one for Tribal and Native 
Hawaiian organization leaders and the other for State Historic 
Preservation Officers and their staffs. General public comments also 
were solicited. Based on the feedback received, the draft was revised. 
The final version of the policy statement was adopted by vote of the 
ACHP members on June 16, 2023.
    The ACHP issues the regulations (36 CFR part 800) that implement 
section 106 of the NHPA, which requires federal agencies to take into 
account the effects of projects they carry out, approve, or fund on 
historic properties. The policy statement applies to the consideration 
of climate change issues during section 106 reviews.

[[Page 51334]]

    While the policy statement pertains to federal agency challenges 
and opportunities, it also speaks broadly to nonfederal parties, 
including but not limited to state, tribal, and local governments; 
preservation planners; and the public. The document defines the scope 
of the challenge, discussing the range of historic property types 
affected and the variety of climate impacts. Effects to sacred sites 
and other properties significant to Indian Tribes and Native Hawaiian 
organizations are highlighted, as are the disproportionate impacts of 
climate change on historic places in underserved communities.
    The bulk of the document consists of a series of policy principles 
that are grouped under seven general topics: gathering information; 
planning for climate change; climate change mitigation; equity; 
flexibility; education; and collaboration.

Text of the Policy Statement on Climate Change and Historic 
Preservation

    The full text of the adopted policy statement is reproduced below:

ACHP Climate Change and Historic Preservation Policy Statement

    America's historic properties--important places that help to define 
and connect people to their communities--are experiencing escalating 
climate impacts that are increasingly leading to their damage and 
destruction. The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) has 
developed this policy statement to define more clearly connections 
between climate change and historic properties, to articulate policy 
principles the ACHP will integrate into the section 106 process, and to 
guide public-serving institutions on how they may acknowledge, plan 
for, mitigate, and adapt to climate change impacts on historic 
properties.

Scope of the Issue

    In 2014, the Union of Concerned Scientists released an important 
report, National Landmarks at Risk: How Rising Seas, Floods, and 
Wildfires Are Threatening the United States' Most Cherished Historic 
Sites. Through a series of case studies illustrating climate change 
impacts to well-known historic places (many of them federally owned and 
managed), the report concluded that:
    Many of the United States' iconic landmarks and heritage sites are 
at risk as never before. Sea level rise, coastal erosion, increased 
flooding, heavy rains, and more frequent large wildfires are damaging 
archaeological resources, historic buildings, and cultural landscapes 
across the nation. From sea to shining sea, a remarkable number of the 
places where American history was made are already under threat. The 
geographic and cultural quilt that tells the American story is fraying 
at the edges--and even beginning to be pulled apart--by the impacts of 
climate change.
    While that report focused on ``iconic'' sites, all kinds of 
historic buildings and neighborhoods, archaeological sites, Tribal 
sites and resources, and culturally important landscapes (both designed 
and natural) throughout the country (collectively, ``historic 
properties''), as well as associated intangible cultural heritage, are 
at risk from a broad range of potential climate impacts, including sea 
level rise; extreme weather events; increased wildfires; drought; 
melting permafrost and erosion; and temperature changes. These impacts 
are both direct and cumulative, and threaten not only historic 
properties but also the terrestrial and aquatic flora and fauna 
associated with historically and culturally important places. The loss 
of or damage to historic properties from such climate impacts can 
irrevocably change a community's sense of place and erode people's 
sense of personal identity and cultural stability.
    Among the historic properties affected by climate change are sacred 
sites, landscapes, and other properties of religious and cultural 
significance to Indian Tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations (NHOs). 
These historic properties frequently are inseparable from the natural 
landscape and reflect a symbiotic relationship between nature and 
culture that is increasingly threatened by climate change. As described 
in the 2021 Status of Tribes and Climate Change Report, authored by the 
Status of Tribes and Climate Change Working Group convened by the 
Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals:
    Tribes have long faced many challenges in protecting and preserving 
[Tribal cultural resources], including from the multiplying effects of 
climate change. From the erosion of ancient burials out of coastal 
bluffs on the Pacific coast to the disruption of habitats and life 
cycles for traditional subsistence foods and medicines in the Great 
Plains and the weathering and loss of ancient petroglyphs and 
pictographs in the Southwest, climate change is threatening Tribal 
cultural resources ranging from tangible archaeological sites to 
intangible cultural beliefs and values.
    Listening sessions and other outreach efforts with Indian Tribes 
and NHOs regarding climate impacts have helped to shape this policy 
statement and underscore the severity of these impacts.
    It also is important to acknowledge the often-disproportionate 
impact of climate change on disadvantaged and underserved communities. 
These communities generally are limited in their ability to plan for 
and adapt to climate change, often lacking management and decision-
making authority for key resources, and thus may be constrained in 
addressing impacts on historic properties.

Role of the Federal Government

    The ACHP, an independent federal agency created by the National 
Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), works to promote the preservation, 
enhancement, and sustainable use of our nation's diverse historic 
resources. It is the ACHP's responsibility to ``advise the President 
and Congress on matters relating to historic preservation, recommend 
measures to coordinate activities of federal, state, and local agencies 
and private institutions and individuals related to historic 
preservation, and advise on the dissemination of information pertaining 
to those activities'' (54 U.S.C. 304102). The ACHP has developed this 
policy statement in keeping with this mandate.
    In accordance with the NHPA, the federal government is to be a 
national preservation leader, manage and care for historic properties 
under its control, and foster both nonfederal, governmental, and 
private preservation activities. Section 110 of the NHPA (54 U.S.C. 
306101-306107; 306109-306114) sets out the broad historic preservation 
responsibilities of federal agencies and is intended to ensure that 
historic preservation is fully integrated into their ongoing programs. 
Section 106 of the NHPA (54 U.S.C 306108) requires federal agencies to 
consider the effects of projects they carry out, approve, or fund on 
historic properties. As the ACHP issues the regulations (36 CFR part 
800) that guide federal agencies in completing review of federal 
projects under section 106, this policy statement applies to the 
consideration of climate change issues during section 106 reviews.
    Climate change adds new challenges to fulfilling federal 
responsibilities under the NHPA and calls for creative approaches. All 
federal agencies should be considering impacts to historic properties 
as part of their climate change planning. Progress is being made in 
this regard, but much more remains to be done. The National Park 
Service has issued several studies and guidance documents to guide both 
its own

[[Page 51335]]

response to climate change and to assist others. Building upon and 
expanding such federal guidance will be vitally important.

Intended Audience

    Given the leadership role of the federal government in addressing 
both climate impacts and historic preservation, the following policy 
principles seek to promote informed federal decision making and 
responsible stewardship of historic properties. The ACHP also has 
designed this policy statement to assist community groups, nonprofit 
organizations, and Tribal, state, and local governments (collectively, 
along with federal agencies, ``public-serving institutions'') as they 
seek to address the impacts of climate change on historic properties 
important to the people they represent.

Policy Principles

Gathering Information

    1. Public-serving institutions should work collaboratively to 
assemble information about previously designated or documented historic 
properties and to identify previously undesignated or undocumented 
historic properties, with priority on areas with the highest potential 
for climate impacts. We cannot protect historic properties if we do not 
know where and what they are. Climate change effects can be felt 
anywhere, and thus public-serving institutions should establish the 
long-term goal of assembling accurate, georeferenced information about 
historic properties, known and unknown, wherever they are. In the near 
term, public-serving institutions should prioritize surveying known and 
unknown historic properties in areas where severe effects to historic 
properties can be readily anticipated, whether from direct climate 
threats or expected impacts from climate change adaptation and 
mitigation solutions. Precedence should be given to areas where there 
has been little previous survey for historic properties or where an 
existing survey is outdated. Often, these priority areas include 
disadvantaged and underserved communities that may previously have 
received limited attention and that may lack resources to undertake 
surveys of their own. Flexibility in the design and function of survey 
projects can help to advance equity goals in identification of historic 
properties.
    Consistent with their missions and authorities, federal agencies 
should both prioritize the survey and identification of federal 
historic properties threatened by climate change and--through funding 
and technical assistance--encourage Tribal, state, local, and 
nongovernmental survey efforts. Federal agencies are required under 
section 110 of the NHPA (54 U.S.C. 306102) to identify historic 
properties under their jurisdiction or control; however, additional 
resources are needed if agencies are to accelerate efforts to identify 
historic properties as part of climate change planning. In the process 
of conducting these surveys and documenting Tribal sites and resources, 
federal agencies should act in accordance with the confidentiality 
provisions of section 304 of the NHPA (54 U.S.C. 307103).
    2. When planning to address climate impacts on historic properties, 
public-serving institutions should seek out and incorporate adaptation 
and mitigation strategies grounded in Indigenous Knowledge. Indian 
Tribes and NHOs possess a body of observations, oral and written 
knowledge, innovations, practices, and beliefs developed through 
interaction and experience with the environment. The expertise embodied 
by such Indigenous Knowledge and its contemporary use by Indian Tribes 
and NHOs can be critically important to the development of climate 
change adaptation and mitigation strategies. It is paramount that 
Indigenous Knowledge is considered when addressing climate impacts on 
historic properties of direct concern to Indian Tribes and NHOs. 
Indigenous Knowledge also can contribute to developing climate-related 
strategies for other historic properties, for example when Indigenous 
Knowledge of wildfire management assists in making areas and 
communities more resilient to wildfire threats.

Planning for Climate Change

    3. Public-serving institutions should consider impacts to historic 
properties as an integral part of climate-related planning and 
implementation. Governments--federal, Tribal, state, and local--and 
other public-serving institutions are working to prepare for and adjust 
to both current and projected impacts of climate change. Efforts 
include climate protective infrastructure projects, such as living 
shorelines and seawalls; climate resilient infrastructure projects 
where roads, sewers, waterlines, etc. are built or retrofitted to 
better resist climate impacts; and efforts to relocate threatened 
historic buildings out of climate risk-prone areas. To ensure effects 
to historic properties are not overlooked, thus leading to their 
destruction or making them more difficult to later address, public-
serving institutions must proactively account for historic properties 
during climate change planning and implementation activities. Doing so 
not only serves to help protect historic properties but also supports 
other aspects of public agency missions and community priorities that 
benefit from the continued stewardship of historic properties. At the 
macro level of consideration, expanding and enhancing discussion of 
historic properties in the periodic National Climate Assessment 
developed by the U.S. Global Change Research Program would be 
beneficial.
    4. Public-serving institutions should consider impacts to historic 
properties as an integral part of disaster preparedness and response. 
While some climate change impacts, such as sea level rise, progress 
gradually, others, such as wildfires and extreme weather events, 
present immediate natural hazards. Plans for disaster preparedness and 
disaster response should assess the vulnerability of historic 
properties, delineate actions to help reduce or avoid disaster impacts 
on historic properties, and explain how such properties will be treated 
during post-disaster recovery efforts. Federal disaster assistance 
programs should encourage and incentivize Tribal, state, and local 
governments to incorporate such considerations into disaster 
preparedness and response planning. Historic building relocation should 
be prioritized in the context of federal or state government buyout 
programs where at-risk properties are acquired to reduce future 
disaster losses.
    5. Public-serving institutions serving communities experiencing 
climate change-related migration, including community-driven relocation 
of entire communities, should address the impacts of such migration on 
historic properties in their planning strategies. Adapting to the 
changing climate will in some cases mean population shifts into, out 
of, and within communities, resulting in a number of possible impacts 
to historic properties. Historic properties in areas experiencing 
population increases consequently may be threatened by development 
pressures. Historic properties in risk-prone areas experiencing 
population decreases may suffer from neglect and displacement of 
residents with long-standing ties to the area. In extreme situations, 
entire populations of communities may need to relocate to escape 
climate-induced impacts, triggering difficult choices regarding the 
abandonment or possible relocation of historic properties. Considering 
such migration-based effects during climate adaptation planning is 
critical to

[[Page 51336]]

reducing negative effects to historic properties, culture, and 
community.

Climate Change Mitigation

    6. Public-serving institutions should contribute to decarbonization 
by promoting reuse of older and historic buildings and by encouraging 
the thoughtful retrofit of such buildings to improve operational energy 
efficiency. About 39 percent of global carbon emissions come from the 
construction and operation of buildings. This impact can be reduced by 
reusing existing buildings, thus avoiding the embodied carbon emissions 
inherent in new construction, including the carbon associated with the 
manufacturing and transportation of new materials and the removal and 
disposal of building materials from demolished buildings. Reuse of 
existing buildings in urban areas also contributes to climate change 
mitigation by promoting density, helping to combat urban sprawl and its 
attendant negative environmental impacts. In terms of operational 
impacts, carbon emissions can be reduced by making existing buildings 
more energy efficient.
    Since approximately 40 percent of America's building stock is at 
least 50 years old, it is critical that reuse and energy retrofit of 
older and historic buildings (including enhanced electrification and 
increased energy efficiency standards) be fundamental priorities. In 
worst case scenarios, where a historic building will not be retrofitted 
and demolition cannot be avoided, practices such as deconstruction and 
reuse of salvageable materials should be employed to reduce the 
demolition's carbon impact. Federal, Tribal, state, and local 
governments should lead by example through the management of the older 
and historic buildings in their real estate portfolios and encourage 
private sector action through funding and other incentives. As part of 
portfolio management decision making, consideration should be given to 
using full life-cycle accounting to value the embodied carbon in 
historic buildings versus new construction in order to facilitate fact-
based decision making. In addition, government standards and programs 
that promote the rehabilitation of historic properties should be 
assessed to ensure that they align with climate mitigation and 
adaptation goals; that they facilitate a variety of modern uses; and 
that they encourage implementation of energy efficiency measures as 
integral to thoughtful preservation of historic buildings.
    7. Development of clean energy projects and climate-friendly 
transportation infrastructure projects should be expedited through 
efficient and effective permitting processes and environmental reviews 
(including section 106 reviews), while still ensuring full 
consideration of potential impacts to historic properties. Reducing 
climate change will require significant investment in large-scale clean 
energy projects (such as solar farms, wind farms, hydropower plants, 
geothermal plants, new and expanded transmission facilities, carbon 
capture and sequestration projects, and mining of key minerals needed 
for clean energy technologies) as well as smaller-scale distributed 
generation projects, such as rooftop solar panels, that generate 
electricity at or near where it will be used. Climate-friendly 
transportation infrastructure projects--including rail, bus rapid 
transit, bicycle infrastructure, and pedestrian infrastructure--also 
are critical to climate change mitigation since the transportation 
sector is responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than any other 
sector of the American economy.
    Environmental reviews and permitting processes for these types of 
important projects, especially those with minimal and small-scale 
impacts, should be managed in such a way as to proceed expeditiously. 
However, potential adverse effects to historic properties must be 
carefully addressed. Of particular concern, such projects (particularly 
those with landscape-scale impacts) can threaten sacred sites and other 
properties of religious and cultural significance to Indian Tribes and 
NHOs, sometimes striking at the very heart of their cultures. During 
section 106 review of clean energy projects and climate-friendly 
transportation infrastructure projects, federal agencies should explore 
use of program alternatives to tailor and expedite the review process 
while at the same time ensuring the consultation process is accessible, 
meaningful, and transparent to the wide variety of consulting parties 
and stakeholders, including Indian Tribes and NHOs.

Equity

    8. Public-serving institutions should recognize that historic 
properties important to disadvantaged and underserved communities may 
be disproportionately affected by climate change and that such 
communities often are ill-equipped to undertake needed interventions. 
Disadvantaged and underserved communities tend to lack the economic and 
political capital to plan for and adapt to climate change and may not 
have direct control over decision-making for community resources. Many 
such communities also are particularly susceptible to the physical 
impacts of climate change. For example, low-income residents and people 
of color disproportionally reside in flood-prone urban areas. Also, 
disadvantaged groups are more likely to reside in older housing stock 
that is in greater need of weatherization and energy retrofitting. Such 
constraints may hinder disadvantaged and underserved communities in 
trying to make the places they care about--including historic 
properties--more resilient to climate impacts. Public-serving 
institutions should recognize and seek to address this problem by 
helping those affected identify their historic properties, assess their 
community's vulnerability, and develop strategies to balance 
appropriate adaptation and mitigation responses with the need to 
preserve their community identity and sense of place.
    9. Federal, state, and local government entities that oversee 
planning, permitting processes, and environmental reviews (including 
section 106 reviews) for climate adaptation and climate mitigation 
projects should consult regarding historic properties with Indian 
Tribes, NHOs, and disadvantaged and underserved communities, and 
capacity building options should be explored for supporting their 
participation in consultation. The section 106 process under the NHPA 
already requires federal agency consultation with Indian Tribes, NHOs, 
and other consulting parties. Here, the ACHP reiterates that 
consultation is necessary and important to ensuring climate adaptation 
and mitigation projects address impacts to historic properties of 
importance to Indian Tribes, NHOs, and disadvantaged and underserved 
communities. Soliciting and considering their views should be done 
proactively, early in planning, and throughout environmental reviews 
and permitting processes. During development of adaptation and 
mitigation strategies, local knowledge (the information held by local 
communities and individuals) and the Indigenous Knowledge of Indian 
Tribes and NHOs can be valuable assets to planning.
    In some cases, limited resources may constrain the active 
participation of disadvantaged and underserved communities in 
consultation. Federal, state, and local government entities should 
consider options for strategic financial investments or other 
assistance to help with needed capacity development. The ACHP 
previously has recommended capacity-building support for consulting 
parties pursuant

[[Page 51337]]

to the agency's ``Guidance on Assistance to Consulting Parties in the 
section 106 Review Process.'' Since many Indian Tribes have been 
incorporating consideration of climate change into their environmental 
reviews and permitting processes for decades, climate-related project 
planning should seek to adopt or align with existing practices and 
standards, where feasible.

Flexibility

    10. The federal government should expand and more flexibly apply 
its guidance on the treatment of historic properties threatened by 
climate change. Federal standards significantly influence the 
rehabilitation of historic properties, public and private alike, 
because they are often adopted or adapted by state and local 
governments and referenced in private party actions (such as 
preservation easements). The federal government should accelerate the 
development of additional guidance for acceptable treatments of 
historic buildings, sites, and landscapes facing climate risks. The 
guidance should extend beyond flooding to the broad range of climate 
impacts, should incorporate the latest technological innovations and 
material treatments, and should increase flexibility in retrofitting 
buildings to be more resilient while preserving their historic 
character as much as possible. Likewise, the National Flood Insurance 
Program should be reviewed to explore how the program might further 
encourage the modification or relocation of historic buildings to 
enhance their resiliency, and to evaluate the impacts of waivers issued 
for historic properties upon community and building resiliency, public 
cost, and economic growth.
    11. Public-serving institutions should develop sensitive and 
creative solutions to help communities accept and contend with the 
reality that many historic properties will have to be altered if they 
are to survive climate change, and many others inevitably will be lost 
to climate impacts. Interventions to protect historic properties from 
climate impacts or reduce such impacts may necessitate changes to the 
properties or their surroundings that are less than ideal. Such 
actions, while saving the properties from loss, may result in negative 
effects. Public-serving institutions should start talking more openly 
about these issues, should guide communities in how to triage 
priorities regarding what properties to surrender to climate 
destruction, and should develop sensitive and sensible strategies to 
help residents deal with such losses.
    12. Consideration of alternatives during environmental review of 
climate-related projects, including during section 106 review, should 
be approached flexibly to promote development of nimble, innovative, 
and expeditious ways to protect historic properties. Section 106 review 
and other environmental reviews provide structured processes for 
exploring alternatives to avoid or minimize any adverse impacts of 
climate adaptation and mitigation projects. Since the evolving climate 
crisis poses new and complex challenges for the protection of historic 
properties that need to be addressed on an increasingly accelerated 
timeline, it is important that consideration of alternatives be rooted 
in flexibility and creativity.

Education

    13. Public-serving institutions, and especially governments, should 
train employees regarding climate change impacts on historic 
properties. Given the scope and magnitude of the climate change effects 
that federal, Tribal, state, and local governments must address, it is 
understandable that impacts to historic properties may not be 
prioritized as highly as some other issues. However, it is critical 
that there be awareness of such impacts and of the importance of 
addressing them. Raising awareness through proactive training of 
government staff is essential. Agencies at all levels of government 
should have opportunities to learn from each other and to share 
information, strategies, and examples. Notably, it also is important 
for them to increase their understanding of relevant international 
approaches to protecting historic properties from, and adapting them 
to, climate change.
    14. Public-serving institutions should educate the media and the 
public about climate change impacts on historic properties and what can 
be done to address them. The general public needs to be aware of the 
worldwide climate-related threats to historic properties and the 
adaptation and mitigation options that might help to address those 
threats. Consciousness raising efforts are needed. Likewise, there 
needs to be outreach to explain how environmental review processes, 
including section 106 review, provide opportunities for the public to 
comment on the climate dimensions of projects as they arise. Such 
educational efforts are important to help ensure the public can 
effectively advocate for protecting historic properties of importance 
to them.

Collaboration

    15. Cooperative efforts across agencies, between levels of 
government, and within communities are critically important. The 
impacts of climate change on historic properties are so wide-ranging 
and potentially severe that collaboration among public-serving 
institutions, including federal, Tribal, state, and local governments, 
community groups, and nonprofit organizations, is essential. Likewise, 
collaboration with those in the environmental, infrastructure, 
transportation, energy, private, and philanthropic sectors will be 
necessary for progress. Cooperation and forging of partnerships will 
enhance implementation of each of the principles discussed above. 
Federal agencies can take a leadership role in this regard through 
their own collaborative work and by encouraging such work through 
funding and technical assistance.

Glossary

     Adaptation: Adjustment in natural or human systems to a 
new or changing environment that exploits beneficial opportunities or 
moderates negative effects. (U.S. Global Change Research Program Web 
Site Glossary)
     Climate change-related migration: Migration that can be 
attributed largely to the slow-onset impacts of climate change on 
livelihoods owing to shifts in water availability and crop 
productivity, or to factors such as sea level rise or storm surge. 
(White House Report on the Impact of Climate Change on Migration, 2021)
     Community-driven relocation: Moving a community or 
portions of a community away from a hazard prone area to a new location 
with lesser exposure to hazards or their impacts. (Department of 
Housing and Urban Development's Climate Resilience Implementation 
Guide: Community Driven Relocation, 2022)
     Historic property: Any prehistoric or historic district, 
site, building, structure, or object included in, or eligible for 
inclusion in, the National Register of Historic Places maintained by 
the Secretary of the Interior. This term includes artifacts, records, 
and remains that are related to and located within such properties. The 
term includes properties of traditional religious and cultural 
importance to an Indian Tribe or Native Hawaiian organization and that 
meet the National Register criteria. (Protection of Historic 
Properties, 36 CFR part 800)
     Mitigation: Measures to reduce the amount and speed of 
future climate change by reducing emissions of heat-trapping gases or 
removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. (U.S. Global Change 
Research Program Web Site Glossary) [To avoid confusion, this policy 
statement does not employ the

[[Page 51338]]

term ``mitigation'' as used in the context of section 106 review, where 
it means reducing the severity of a project's adverse effects to 
historic properties.]
     Resiliency/resilient: A capability to anticipate, prepare 
for, respond to, and recover from significant multi-hazard threats with 
minimum damage to social well-being, the economy, and the environment. 
(U.S. Global Change Research Program Web Site Glossary)

    Adopted June 16, 2023.

(End of Document)

    Authority: 54 U.S.C. 304102(a).

    Dated: July 31, 2023.
Javier Marques,
General Counsel.
[FR Doc. 2023-16569 Filed 8-2-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-K6-P