Tennessee Code Title 70. Wildlife Resources § 70-8-309

(a) It is a violation of this part for any person other than the landowner, lessee, or other person entitled to possession, or the manager, in the case of publicly owned land, or a person with the written permission of the landowner or manager, to knowingly uproot, dig, take, remove, damage, destroy, possess, or otherwise disturb for any purpose, any endangered species. This subsection (a) does not apply to any employee or contractor of the federal government or of the state or of any political subdivision of the state engaged in any type of planning, construction, or maintenance work upon any proposed or existing federal, state, county, or other public road or highway, or highway right-of-way, while performing such work in the course of employment or contract work with the federal, state, or local government.

(b) It is a violation of this part for any nursery farmer to export from this state or to sell any endangered species without first obtaining a license from the commissioner as provided in § 70-8-304(3). The license shall allow any nursery farmer to purchase a maximum of ten (10) plants of any endangered species in each calendar year without being in violation of this part.