ABSTRACT 7th International Symposium on Environmental Concerns in Rights-of-Way Management
TITLE:	Bonneville Power Administration - Transmission System Vegetation Management Program, Environmental Impact Statement, August 1999
AUTHOR(S):	William Erickson - wterickson@bpa.gov Bonneville Power Administration Walla Walla, WA, USA
The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) maintains over 25,000 km of transmission lines, and 350 substations in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. These facilities require vegetation management to provide a safe, reliable and cost effective power system. Bonneville Power has to implement a vegetation program that: keeps vegetation away from it's facilities, is consistent and cost effective, acceptable to outside entities, and uses the principles of Integrated Pest Management (IPM). With these objectives, the Transmission and Environmental staffs at BPA started the process to develop an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the "Transmission System Vegetation Management Program" in the spring of 1997. A large portion of BPA rights-of-way crossed U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management Lands. These agencies were brought in as cooperators to the EIS. As cooperators, these agencies assisted BPA with methods and environmental requirements that are pertinent to each agency's policies and guidelines. The result of this effort is a document that outlines alternatives, control methods, and strategies for managing tall growing right-of-way vegetation, vegetation in substations, noxious weeds, and landscapes at BPA facilities. The result of this work will be the basis of implementing vegetation management on BPA facilities in the future that meet the site specific environmental needs of the site by using mitigation methods outlined in the EIS, and using Integrated Pest Management principles. Ref#: Abs-1-024