Tyler Molter is a Registered Professional Archaeologist with ten years of experience managing cultural resource investigations throughout the American West. Before joining Catalyst, he served as a Senior Archaeologist directing comprehensive field surveys and site documentation across diverse terrain and regulatory frameworks for Section 106 compliance efforts under the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA). Tyler’s expertise encompasses precontact and historic archaeology in the Great Basin, Pacific Northwest, California Coast, and Southwest, with specialized skills in faunal analysis, artifact analysis, and Human Behavioral Ecology.
Tyler’s graduate studies culminated in an M.A. in Anthropology from the University of Nevada, Reno in 2021, with a thesis focused on the chronology of occupation and diet through time for Chumash groups on Santa Rosa Island of the Northern Channel Islands, California. He was also rewarded the 2021 Orphaned Collections Grant by the Society of California Archaeology. This grant allowed Tyler to process material excavated in the 1990s to include in his research, along with accessioning these assemblages for curation at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. Additionally, he ran the Kid’s Dig at the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, supporting the Public Archaeology and Interpretation program.
Tyler brings extensive knowledge of material culture from the American West, combined with proficiency in modern field technologies including GNSS systems, digital databases, and electronic recordation platforms. He contributes to the preparation of documentation in compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and Section 106 of the NHPA. He has extensive experience conducting archaeological surveys, cultural resource evaluations, and historic property assessments. Tyler's experience spans projects for federal agencies including BLM, USFS, NPS, and DoD, as well as utility companies, mining operations, civil engineering, and renewable energy developments.
