The Western Area Power Administration, Desert Southwest Region (Western) markets and delivers federal hydroelectric power to nearly 70 municipalities, cooperatives, federal and state agencies, and irrigation districts. Most power sold by Western is generated from power plants operated at Hoover, Parker, and Davis dams; as well as from hydroelectric projects in the Bureau of Reclamations (BOR) Upper Colorado Region and the federal portion of power generated at the Navajo Generating Station near Page, Arizona. Westerns Desert Southwest Region operates and maintains more than 40 substations and 3,100 miles (4,950 kilometers) of transmission line to ensure system reliability. Within this region, Western owns, operates, and maintains 69-kilovolt (kV), 115 kV, 230 kV, 345 kV, and 500 kV, transmission lines in eleven counties in Arizona; San Bernardino, Riverside, and Imperial counties in California; San Juan County in New Mexico; and Clark County in Nevada. These transmission lines include the Glen Canyon- Flagstaff and Flagstaff-Pinnacle Peak transmission lines. Collectively, the portions of these 345 kV transmission lines and associated access roads from Glen Canyon Dam to Pinnacle Peak that traverse the Coconino National Forest (CNF) compose the Project area (Figure 1-1). Currently, these transmission lines pass through rugged, and in some cases densely vegetated areas in northern and central Arizona, which are in need of proactive vegetation management and right-of-way maintenance. Westerns Integrated Vegetation Management (IVM) Guide and Transmission Vegetation Management Program (Western 2011) employs an adaptive management approach that follows environmentally protective vegetation-control principles for potentially hazardous vegetation, including natural, physical, and mechanical control. Section 2 Proposed Action and Alternatives, provides additional details on these vegetation control methods.
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