Piñon Heritage Solutions, LLC is a quickly growing cultural resources firm providing Archaeology, History, Architectural History, Historic Preservation, Ethnography, and Native American support services as part of the larger environmental consulting field. We are focused on supporting private landowners, companies, and public agencies in complying with cultural resources laws and regulations while also assisting Native American tribes with mitigation and protection of sensitive tribal and cultural resources. The Piñon team is committed to high-quality work products completed on time and within budget.
Federal
State
NEPA and CEQA Document Sections
Tribal Outreach
Peak Workload Support
Piñon Heritage Solutions is owned and managed by Dr. Beth Bagwell, RPA. She is a Registered Professional Archaeologist (#16564) who meets the Secretary of the Interior’s qualification criteria as an archaeologist. Dr. Bagwell brings more than thirty years of experience in archaeology and anthropology. She has directed cultural resources projects of all types and managed project budgets ranging from $1,500 to $1 million. Dr. Bagwell has more than a decade of experience preparing environmental documents as part of CEQA and NEPA for some of the largest and most controversial infrastructure projects in California. She is experienced with the studies and logistics associated with large projects as well as the unusual challenges that come with balancing the conflicting needs of stakeholders.
Sue Hagen is a Registered Professional Archaeologist (#6189) and meets the Secretary of the Interior’s qualification criteria as an archaeologist. Ms. Hagen’s professional career spans over two decades in diverse fields, from environmental consulting to education to engineering. Ms. Hagen has fostered strong skills in both field and lab methods, including pedestrian survey, monitoring, site recording and updating, and photography, as well as artifact inventory and identification, cleaning, cataloging, and curation. She brings a multidisciplinary approach to cultural resource management with a foundation of education and experience in applied archaeology, linguistics, and research and writing. In addition to her cultural resources experience, she has extensive experience in technical editing, administrative leadership, and teaching at the community-college level and regularly presents original research at state conferences, contributes to professional publications, and participates in site stewardship and public archaeology. At Piñon Heritage Solutions, Ms. Hagen assists in the management of large-scale fuels reduction projects, including drafting scopes and cost estimates, coordinating with field staff, supervising junior staff, and writing fieldwork plans and reports that meet the standards for Section 106 compliance. shagen@pinonheritage.com
David Nicholson has 30 years of experience in GIS and archaeology, including data management, analysis, and cartography, and in field and office operations specific to Cultural Resource Management. He brings expertise in ArcPro, ArcGIS, Microsoft Office Suite, Adobe graphics software, and archaeological fieldwork. His maps, data tables, and charts clearly convey complicated findings for reports and in communications with clients.
He has supported projects across energy, utilities, water management, transportation, and federal lands and has worked with agencies including PG&E, CalTrans, the Bureau of Reclamation, the Forest Service, and the Department of Defense. He enjoys leading diverse groups requiring cross-disciplinary collaboration, resulting in high-performing teams while achieving positive project outcomes. This project experience gives him an appreciation for precise and reliable data, invaluable for managing cultural GIS datasets and producing GIS analysis relevant to archaeological study. An additional strength is in mentoring and training personnel to improve their fieldwork and data collection efforts, instituting quality controls, and managing staff to meet project deadlines.
David is dedicated to ensuring Pinon's GIS data serves all our professional, organizational, and client needs, whether for high-quality reports and map production, rapid internal emergency maps, engaging public documents, or maintaining analytical and data collection procedures designed to make complex information accessible under tight deadlines.
Taylor Alshuth is an archaeologist with over nine years of experience with cultural resource management in California. At Piñon Heritage Solutions, Mr. Alshuth has taken on the role of an Associate Archaeologist and Archaeological Crew Lead, training and managing teams of other archaeological staff in various aspects of archaeological field projects. He has experience with archaeological survey, monitoring, and excavation, and is proficient writing proposals and developing budgets for various archaeological projects, conducting archival research, examining topographical and historical atlas maps, reviewing and interpreting information presented in archaeological technical reports, and writing reports to meet both state (CEQA) and federal (Section 106) standards. In addition, Mr. Alshuth has experience working with numerous stakeholders, including those representing federal, Tribal, state, and local governments.
Elizabeth Barthold O’Brien, MA meets the Secretary of the Interior’s qualification criteria as an architectural historian. She has conducted field work, research and writing about history, architectural history, landscape architecture and city planning for more than 15 years. Ms. O’Brien has worked on cultural resources research, writing projects and interpretation in California, Washington, Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, the District of Columbia, Georgia, and the United Kingdom. In association with her work in architectural history, she has applied her expertise to numerous National Register Nominations, HABS reports, and other documents pursuant to applicable federal, state, and local regulations. Ms. Barthold O’Brien’s experience also includes eight years as an architectural historian on the Heritage Preservation Review Board of the Town of Herndon, Virginia, during which she worked on the HABS documentation and National Historic Landmark registration of L’Enfant Plan of the District of Columbia. In California, she has completed more than 250 DPR Primary, Building/Structure/Object, and Update forms. As a Senior Architectural Historian at Piñon Heritage Solutions, Ms. Barthold O’Brien provides support to the evaluation and documentation of historic properties through fieldwork, archival research, and writing and review of environmental documents and other project deliverables.
Mark Robinson, MA, RPA is a Registered Professional Archaeologist (#11067) with more than thirty-five years of experience in prehistoric and historical archaeology. He has worked extensively in California, other western states, and in the southeast. Mr. Robinson has managed multiple cultural resource projects including Phase I, II, and III level archaeological investigations and monitoring programs for private parties, and federal and state agencies. Mr. Robinson has coordinated Native American consultation under Section 106 and CEQA, including SB 18 and AB 52. In addition, he has used his geologic background to both provide and interpret geoarchaeological analyses for projects in California, Montana, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Virginia. He has applied this background to numerous undertakings in southern California, the Sierra Nevada and Central Valley regions of northern California, the desert of eastern Oregon, and a broad region of southeastern Montana. As a Senior Archaeologist at Piñon Heritage Solutions, Mr. Robinson provides support to archaeological projects through project management, fieldwork, archival research, geoarchaeological analysis, and writing and review of environmental documents and other project deliverables.
Michelle Cascio, MA brings expertise as a trained ethnographer and data manager to her role as Cultural Resources Specialist with Piñon Heritage Solutions. As an ethnographer, she is versed in academic research, participant observation, data collection, interview and transcription, writing narrative accounts, and theoretical analysis. In the field, she has conducted pedestrian survey, vegetation management monitoring, screening, artifact and feature recording with photography and/or scaled illustration, and site updating on DPR 523 site forms. Within the lab, her experience working with cultural materials includes artifact transport and cleaning, basic identification, labeling and photography. In addition to her archaeological experience, Ms. Michelle Cascio has both supervisory and administrative experience. Supervisory skills include interviewing and training personnel in an education setting, dynamic scheduling with respect to student-teacher compatibility and content knowledge pairing, teacher performance review, maintaining client relations, managing program roll-out, and evaluating education program effectiveness. Administrative skills include knowledge of Office and G Suite applications, database and file management, over 20 years of evaluating others written work, and budget review for a multimillion-dollar cultural resources management project. Additionally, Ms. Michelle Cascio has ample experience managing cross-discipline projects, including her role as Lead Negotiator for the Civicorps United labor union and as Bilingual Algebra Teacher for the newcomer immigrant population in an urban high school.
Ms. Fankhauser is a cultural resources specialist with 14 years of experience in California archaeology, mainly contracted on military installations within the Mojave Desert and Great Basin regions. She has worked on over 150 projects and authored over 60 associated reports. These reports were conducted to comply with Section 106 and Section 110 of the National Historic Preservation Act as well as NEPA process. Her other specialties focus on technical report review and editing, utilizing ArcMap GIS software for data mapping and management, conducting records searches, completing California DPR forms, and conducting fieldwork, including survey, excavation, and construction and site monitoring. Ms. Fankhauser skills also include conducting archival research using internal agency documents and online resources as needed (General Land Office records, online libraries, soil surveys, historic topographic maps). Her attention to detail ensures data accuracy across reports, GIS data/maps, site records, and appendices. Since 2018, Ms. Fankhauser has prepared consultation packages for the State Historic Preservation Office and the Tribal Historic Preservation Office.
Jeff Joseph, MS possesses over six years of experience in the environmental field, specializing in spatial data analysis and cartography. With a master’s degree in environmental science and a focus on geospatial science Mr. Joseph’s diverse background spans GIS applications for city planning, commercial property mapping, and archaeological studies. As Piñon Heritage Solutions’ resident GIS Specialist, Jeff applies his expertise to support cultural resource projects, including archaeological mapping and data analysis.
Darlene Ishigo has over fifteen years of administrative experience in the energy, geology, and editorial sectors, and has successfully collaborated with scientists, engineers, project managers, and division leads during this time. While employed at PG&E, Darlene was responsible for maintaining effective control of internal documents, compiling data for regulatory requests, and analyzing root causes for process delays. She also provided strategic portfolio planning by forecasting project budgets, evaluating risks, and balancing company-level needs. Darlene has maintained a strong background in project planning and office management over the years. She has acted as a staffing manager to fill various project needs, as an assistant to multiple executives, and as a travel planner for complex field projects across the world. After years of editing scientific and governmental reports, Darlene has also recently received a certification in copy editing.
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