More Than One Million Trout Will Continue to Run Through Georgia and Tennessee

The Tennessee Valley Authority, working with U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, has reached a multi-agency agreement to provide continued funding for three federal fish hatcheries that annually supply more than one million trout for TVA dam tailwaters and reservoirs in Tennessee and Georgia.

Based on input from an advisory group of interested stakeholders, the agencies developed a plan to collectively fund future trout hatchery operations at current levels in the following manner: TVA will provide base funding for the trout stock; FWS(U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) will fund infrastructure and maintenance costs of the hatcheries, and the state agencies will fund their costs to distribute and monitor the fish.

“Our long-standing partnership among TVA, state and federal natural resource agencies can celebrate this latest success in serving our constituents,” said Dan Forster, director of Georgia’s Wildlife Resources Division.

More than 256,000 anglers are estimated to fish for trout in Tennessee and Georgia waters each year, spending about $73 for every $1 invested in the hatchery program and producing an economic impact of about $45 million.