Preservation Guidance

Flowers in pots grow on a patio of square pavers beside a pool with a diving board — View of the swimming pool area from the pool patio in 1940, part of the cultural landscape of Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site.
NPS / Cook-Dickerman Collection

Essential Guidance

Guide to Cultural Landscape Reports: Contents, Process, and Techniques

A Cultural Landscape Report (CLR) identifies the preservation goals for a cultural landscape. The CLR documents landscape characteristics and associated features, values, and associations that make a landscape historically significant, according to National Register Criteria for Evaluation. This guide is the definitive guidance document for the creation and use of CLRs.

Secretary of the Interior's Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties with Guidelines for the Treatment of Cultural Landscapes

This document presents the standards and guidelines for the treatment of cultural landscpaes for cultural landscape owners, stewards, and managers, landscape architects, engineers, contractors, and project reviewers in the planning and implementation of treatment projects.

National Register of Historic Places Criteria for Evaluation

Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the nation's historic places worthy of preservation. The significance of cultural landscapes is based on their eligibility and evaluation for the National Register of Historic Places.

"Management of Cultural Landscapes"

Chapter 7 of NPS-28: Cultural Resource Management Guideline describes the management of cultural landscapes by the National Park Service.

Research, Planning, and Stewardship

Technical guidance for the preservation of cultural landscapes is arranged according to the processes of research, planning, and stewardship.

Preservation Process

Identify, Document, & Evaluate
Research

Research into cultural landscapes helps define the values and associations that make them historically significant.
Decisions & Resource Relationships
Planning

Park plans consider cultural landscape topics like historic land uses and the location and character of significant resources.
Treatment & Maintenance
Stewardship

The NPS follows preservation standards that apply to the care and treatment of cultural landscapes.