POWERGRAMS

Alabama Power provides reliable electricity while preserving the state's natural beauty and caring for species along its transmission rights of way. This includes the white fringeless orchid, a federally protected plant found in Alabama and a few Southeastern states. The orchid is listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. "Although Alabama has over 50 species of native orchids, they're generally rare, but this one is especially rare," said Environmental Affairs (EA) Specialist Dylan Shaw. "It likes sphagnum moss, commonly found in seepy wetlands known as 'bogs,' in typically open habitat. If it's in a forested area, it likes lots of sunlight reaching the ground. Active management of its habitat is important for this species." Shaw noted the orchid's tiny seeds are carried on the wind. "They actually rely on a unique relationship with soil fungus for energy, so in the absence of the fungus, the orchid can't grow." The company conducts environmental surveys, including wetland and stream delineations and threatened and endangered species surveys, before upgrading or installing new transmission lines. During a 2020 survey of a transmission line in Fayette County, the team discovered a new occurrence of the white fringeless orchid, the first time it had ever been recorded in the county. Afterward, EA specialists returned to survey other wetlands, finding the orchid in four wetlands in all. With this knowledge, Alabama Power has taken voluntary conservation measures to protect the species. The company partners with local landowners, nonprofits and federal entities to properly manage the orchid, ensuring it thrives on company-managed rights of way. "We went into a pretty thorough process of figuring out the best management actions for these plants on our rights of way," Shaw noted. "We consulted with the Tennessee Valley Authority, which also has white fringeless orchids on their transmission lines in Alabama and Tennessee. We also coordinated with our vegetation management crews, who do an excellent job of managing our transmission lines to maintain reliability for customers, to develop a management regime that also protects the orchids." The plant typically blooms by mid- to late August. "There's about a two-to-three-week window to see them in flower," Shaw said. EA partners with botanists from the Atlanta Botanical Garden to monitor annual flowering counts, collecting seeds from these populations to safeguard their genetics for future conservation efforts." EA takes extra care in managing these wetlands to give the orchids the best possible growing habitat, joining a multistate effort to see this species reach recovery across its range. Company protects rare native orchids on transmission rights of way Environmental stewardship 3 The endangered orchid has been found in four wetlands on company rights of way. (Dylan Shaw) Company photographer Phil Free retires on Feb. 9. During his 36-year career, he has won numerous state, national and international awards, highlighting his skill. Free earned a B.S. degree in biology from Birmingham- Southern College in 1983, but his creativity led him to Alabama Power. Public Relations General Manager Cindy Duvall said, "Phil's talent and dedication have helped tell Alabama Power's story for decades. His Powergrams photography has captured the people and places that make our company and communities extraordinary." Fond farewell to Phil Free Free captured the people, places and community of Alabama Power.

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