Environmental Protection Agency, Stamford, Conn. (1,380 square feet)

It’s a welcome opportunity for Mark Rees, a professor of archaeology at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and director of the Louisiana Public Archaeology Lab.Still, Rees laments that the work is hampered by people who have made unauthorized digs and made off with material from the site.

Gray Tarry, bottom left, an archeological field technician for the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, digs, while Josiah Hamilton, left, and Jamie Butts, right, high school students from Youth Conservation Corps, watch at an archeological site in Kisatchie National Forest, La. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)Gray Tarry, bottom left, an archeological field technician for the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, digs, while Josiah Hamilton, left, and Jamie Butts, right, high school students from Youth Conservation Corps, watch at an archeological site in Kisatchie National Forest, La. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)“It’s like walking into the archive and finding a book that’s so rare it’s one of a kind and it predates writing itself, it’s like tearing a page out of that book and walking off with it,” said Rees.

The salvaged artifacts will be sorted, catalogued and examined as researchers at the archaeology lab seek to make determinations about past cultures at the site.McGill reported from New Orleans.

SAO PAULO (AP) — Sloths weren’t always slow-moving, furry tree-dwellers. Their

were huge — up to 4 tons (3.6 metric tons) — and when startled, they brandished immense claws.Natural Resources Conservation Service, Saipan Island, MP (3,600 square feet)

Internal Revenue Service National Office, Salem, Ore. (9,733 square feet)Natural Resources Conservation Service, Salinas, Calif. (7,829 square feet)

National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, Salisbury, Md. (826 square feet)National Park Service, Salt Lake City, Utah (3,008 square feet)