Biodiversity

Biodiversity provides essential benefits and services to people, including a stable food supply, clean water, new medicines and recreational opportunities.

Protecting plant and animal species for future generations is integral to continued sustainable development of the Tennessee Valley.

TVA's holistic approach to integrated resource management, combined with our large service area, positions TVA as a regional leader in biodiversity conservation.

Watch this video to learn how our Biodiversity Policy is helping to drive conservation efforts both in natural areas and operational areas like dam reservations, generation sites and transmission line easements.

View the TVA Biodiversity Policy.

Pollinators like bees and butterflies are critical to the health of our ecosystems and essential to producing many of the foods we love. Pollinators are responsible for as much as one third of food we consume! Unfortunately, populations of pollinating insects are declining and some formerly common species are now at risk of extinction. There are many reasons for pollinator decline, but habitat loss is one important factor.

TVA is playing a key role in slowing or even reversing this decline by encouraging native wildflowers and grasses on transmission line rights of way and other lands.

How TVA supports pollinators

People Spotlight

Adam Dattilo
As TVA's botanist and biodiversity program manager, Adam is a champion for threatened and endangered plant species in the Valley. He has also pioneered efforts to grow pollinators in TVA’s power line corridors. “Given the extent of our operations and the amount of land we manage, we’re in a position to play a leadership role in conserving resources that might otherwise die out.” Learn more about Adam.

Species Spotlight

Partner Spotlight

Conservation Fisheries, Inc.
In rows of aquariums on the edge of Knoxville, this non-profit hatchery works to conserve some of the most imperiled fishes in the southeast. Over the last few decades, CFI has propagated more than 75 non-game fish. TVA partners with CFI to help restore fish populations, and donated a backup generator to ensure that the fish survive even if the power goes out.