Transmission System Routine Periodic Vegetation Management Fiscal Years 2027, 2028 and 2029

On September 30, 2026, Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) issued a final environmental assessment (EA) and finding of no significant impact (FONSI) for its proposal to perform routine vegetation management within its transmission system rights-of-way for fiscal years 2027, 2028 and 2029 planning cycles.

The EA evaluates the site-specific effects of vegetation management performed on about one-third of the TVA transmission system within twelve managed sectors in each fiscal year. The management of vegetation within the rights-of-way on a recurring cycle is needed to ensure the transmission system can continue to provide reliable power and to prevent outages related to incompatible vegetation. Typically, vegetation management activities consist of herbicide application (90 percent), mechanical control (6 percent - i.e., brush hogs, equipment mounted saws) and manual methods (4 percent - i.e., chainsaw, handsaw). Tree work would be limited to trees that would present an immediate hazard to the reliability of the transmission system.

The EA tiers from the broader bounding analysis within TVA’s 2019 Transmission System Vegetation Management Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS), eliminating repetitive discussion of issues already addressed in the PEIS by summarizing and incorporating by reference the discussion from the same. A Record of Decision was issued in October 2019 indicating TVA’s preferred vegetation management program would be to manage the full extent of the ROW to a meadow-like end-state across its entire transmission system.