May 27, 2014 — Elizabeth Lake and Rafe Petersen of Holland & Knight LLP say the proposed rules “would radically change the regulatory definition and significance of ‘critical habitat,’ resulting in a considerable expansion of the impact of the ESA on private land.”
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA’s) National Marine Fisheries Service proposed two new rules and a policy related to their process of protecting and designating “critical habitat” for species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), according to an article by JD Supra available here.
Elizabeth Lake and Rafe Petersen of Holland & Knight LLP say the proposed rules “would radically change the regulatory definition and significance of ‘critical habitat,’ resulting in a considerable expansion of the impact of the ESA on private land.”
The first proposed rule would revise the definition of “adverse modification” of critical habitat. The proposed rule responds to two court decisions that set aside the 1986 definition of “adverse modification.”
Read the full story from the Ag & Food Law Blog