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Chapter 2 The Study Area <br />A. Physical Description of the Region <br />The Four Corners area (see Figure 2-A-1) is situated on the Colorado Plateau, with elevations <br />ranging from 2,760 feet to 10,388 feet.. Climate is generally grid and semi-arid with average <br />monthly temperatures ranging from the upper 20 degrees Fahrenheit in the winter to the upper <br />90 degrees in July and August. <br />The San Juan River is a tributary of the Colorado River. It originates in the San Juan <br />Mountains of southern Colorado, flowing through northern New Mexico and southeastern <br />Utah before flowing into Lake Powell, the point of confluence with the Colorado River. <br />Major tributaries of the San Juan include the La Plata and Animas rivers. Like many other <br />rivers in the American West, the flow of the San Juan is characterized by large seasonal and <br />temporal fluctuations. The flow of the San Juan is largely regulated by Navajo Reservoir, <br />located approximately forty miles east of Farmington, NM. Under the management plan <br />adopted for the critical habitat of the endangered fishes, both the timing and the quantity of <br />water released from that reservoir will be altered. <br />This study includes the economies of four Native American tribes: the Navajo, the Jicarilla <br />Apache, the Ute Mountain Ute, and the Southern Ute. The relevant tribal lands are located <br />in, and the study region encompasses, the counties listed in Table 2-A-1.2 <br />ZNote that a small portion of the Jicarilla tn'bal land is located in Sandoval County, NM. Inclusion of this <br />county is inappropriate given that its economy is dominated by the NM municipalities of Corrales and Bernalillo. <br />5 <br />