Marble Canyon Dam States Geological Survey, which designated sites for "an unbroken string of [hydroelectric] dams from the mountains of Colorado and Wyoming to the last canyons of the Colorado River along the California/Arizona border". Although the Bureau of Reclamation expressed interest at this time in developing hydroelectric generation at the Marble site, these plans were postponed in favor of building the Hoover Dam, which would provide a much greater storage capacity for irrigation and flood control. However, once Hoover was completed the Bureau once again set its sights on the Grand Canyon, which has the greatest hydroelectric potential of any canyon in
Flora of the Arizona Upland Flora of the Arizona Upland Flora of the Arizona Upland' includes higher elevation Sonora Desert plants that require more moisture and cooler climates than those of the adjacent Sonoran Desert areas in the Colorado Desert of the lower Colorado River valley area, and which can withstand frost, unlike plants of the Sonoran Desert south of the border between the United States and Mexico. The Arizona Upland receives between 12 and 15 inches of annual precipitation, of which half falls in the summer monsoons. Cold air collects in the valleys. Less cold tolerant species grow on the warmer slopes above. The