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The Salt River Project (SRP) is planning to conduct 5-year vegetation management along their Coronado-Silvering 500 kV transmission line beginning in May 2022. The portion of the transmission right-of-way (ROW) that crosses Tonto National Forest (TNF)’s Tonto Basin and Pleasant Valley Ranger Districts will be subject to vegetation management during this cycle. The entire length of the proposed treatment corridor has been previously surveyed, with the most recent survey conducted by Logan Simpson in 2016 (Cook et al. 2017). Review of the existing data sources, however, reveals numerous discrepancies in site location, site extent, and concordance among Arizona State Museum (ASM) assigned numbers, Forest Service assigned numbers, and other site numbering systems. Thus, the purpose of this project is to reconcile, to the extent possible, those discrepancies and to provide updated spatial data and recommendations. This will allow SRP to determine spans in which vegetation management by hand is needed to preserve cultural resources sites.

SRP uses FR 80 to access Horse Mesa Dam and associated facilities in eastern Maricopa County, Arizona. Also known as Horse Mesa Dam Road, FR 80 traverses rugged terrain between its point of origin at SR 88 and its terminus at the dam on the Salt River. The road requires periodic maintenance for its sustainable and safe use, and SRP intends to implement future road improvement projects in coordination with TNF. SRP contracted SWCA Environmental Consultants (SWCA) to conduct a Class III cultural resources survey along a 4.3-mile-long stretch of FR 80, between SR 88 and the point where the road enters lands withdrawn from the TNF for use by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (i.e., Reclamation-withdrawn lands). The purpose of the survey was to identify cultural resources that are listed in or eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) so that SRP can take the necessary measures to avoid or minimize impacts to them during future operations and maintenance activities on or along FR 80, and to assist the TNF in its management of cultural resources on the lands that it administers.

Desert Archaeology, Inc., under contract to Salt River Project (SRP), has completed archaeological monitoring of excavations along the northern and southern banks of the Salt River at the eastern end of Lake Roosevelt. The excavations were conducted to assess subsurface geological deposits in the Meddler Point locality. Archaeological monitoring of these test excavations was requested by the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) and the Arizona State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) due to the potential for encountering cultural remains in the project area. Tiffany Clark and Joshua Watts of Desert Archaeology, Inc., completed the archaeological monitoring in six person-days between 19 and 21 December 2001, working under the authority of U.S. Department of the Interior Federal Archaeological Permit No. 01-03 and a U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service Special Use Permit. Although numerous archaeological sites have been documented in the immediate vicinity of the project area, no cultural remains were encountered during the test excavations.