management of historic sites in the face of development. The subject has developed from an emphasis on preservation of material culture (by record if not by physical remains), to encompass the broader concepts of culture, which are inseparable from the local communities. Modern thinking takes the view that cultural heritage belongs to the people, therefore access to cultural heritage has to be ensured. The public reaction to the proposed destruction of the Newport ship shows the importance of heritage to local communities. The legislation of individual nations is often based upon ratification of UNESCO conventions, such as the 1972 World Heritage Convention, the Valletta treaty and the 2001 Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage. Specific legislation is sometimes needed to ensure the appropriate protection of individual sites recognized as World Heritage Sites. Cultural heritage assessment While archaeological sites remain the primary focus for many CHM professionals, others research historical records or on ethnohistorical projects. Public outreach also falls within their purview. A recent concept is Traditional Cultural Property or TCP. These are places with cultural importance to a group that may not be either particularly historical or an archaeological site. An example would be a location used for contemporary Native American religious events that has no archaeological remains. A phase of evaluation is considered important in assessing the significance of a possible cultural heritage site. This can comprise a desk-based study, interviews with informants in the community, a wide-area survey, or trial trenching. In North America, survey normally includes either walking ploughed fields in 5–10-metre transects or digging shovel test pits at the same intervals. The soil from the test pits is sifted through 6 mm mesh to look for artifacts. If artifacts are found, the next stage of investigation is usually digging and sifting a spaced grid of test pits (1 m by 1 m trenches) to determine how large or significant the site is. Mitigation In the United Kingdom and Canada, all forms of development, public and private, are subject to archaeological requirements, while in the United States this work can only be undertaken in federally funded projects or those on government-owned land, except in a few states that have laws that apply also to private land. Where archaeological requirements apply to a site of proposed development, if no significant archaeological or other cultural property sites are found in the impacted area, construction may proceed