Jesup’s milk-vetch. Photo by Levi Smith/Wikimedia Commons Via Community News Service, a University of Vermont journalism internship President Donald Trump’s administration finalized a rule change last month that alters the definition of “harm” in the Endangered Species Act, loosening protections for endangered species and making them more vulnerable to habitat loss and extinction.  Passed in 1973, the act previously defined “harm” broadly to include any actions that injure or kill a protected organism, including “significant habitat modification or degradation.” The Trump administration, however, argued that the definition amounted to regulatory overreach and interfered with private property rights. That definition is now being rescinded, which would allow oil drilling, mining and logging to operate in wildlife habitats, as long as the animals that live there aren’t injured or killed, according to the Associated Press.  Environmental law experts and conservationists are now evaluating what the change could mean for Vermont’s endangered species, conservation laws and development plans. They agree that while Vermont still has its own legal protections for listed species, the rollback of federal regulations could have a national impact that affects the state’s plants and animals. “(These species are) listed because of loss of habitat, and that’s really difficult to restore and recover from,” said Patrick Parenteau, a professor of law emeritus and senior fellow for climate policy at Vermont Law and Graduate School. “They’re never going to recover if you start repealing the rules that are designed to protect that habitat.”  Vermont has seven animal and three plant species listed as federally endangered or threatened, including the Canadian lynx and Jesup’s milk-vetch, a rare plant only found in Vermont and New Hampshire.  The state also maintains its own list, which includes endangered species — 71 plants and 39 animals — and threatened ones, including 93 plants and 17 animals. Decisions about what species are listed are made by the state’s Endangered Species Committee.  The Canadian lynx is an endangered species in Vermont that could be further threatened by habitat loss. Photo by kdee64 (Keith Williams), CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons The committee, which includes three state officials and six ecology experts appointed by the governor, advises the Secretary of Natural Resources on issues relating to endangered and threatened species, including whether to alter the state’s lists of species, how to protect them and where to designate critical habitat. The committee also weighs in on whether developers should receive permits when their plans could harm the state’s protected species. Bryan Pfeiffer, a field naturalist who serves on the committee, said the state does not allow the presence of an endangered species to halt all development, but in his opinion, the federal rule change goes beyond what is considered sensible environmental policy. “Most of the time we accommodate development,” he said, referring to Vermont. But at the national level, “This sort of reinterpretation of the notion of ‘harm’ really takes away (the country’s) ability to have reasonable threatened and endangered species protections.” Pfeiffer explained that a species doesn’t need to be present in a habitat to be threatened by its destruction. For example, long-ranging species like the Canadian lynx rely on connected habitats across multiple states, meaning the federal change could shrink their range in states with looser laws. “Imagine you’re on an airplane. You’ve taken a vacation, and you’re on your return flight home, only to find that the airport where you expect to land is now gone,” he said. “In many ways, that’s what this is like: You can damage habitat while a species is not there and still imperil the species.” The Indiana bat is one of five bat species listed as endangered or threatened in Vermont. Photo by Adam Mann for the U.S. Fish Wildlife Service, via Wikimedia Commons Christophe Courchesne, the director of the Environmental Law Center at Vermont Law and Graduate School, said Vermont’s endangered species may fare better than those in states that defer to federal guidance. But he said there could still be areas of the law that were previously overlooked that the state may need to revisit. “We could see gaps where the state needs to impose more restrictions in future cases without help from federal agencies. Going forward, the state will need to be vigilant to enforce state law,” he said. The rule change is set to take effect on September 14, but environmental organizations have already sued to stop it. Both Courchesne and Parenteau said they believe the rule change has no legal basis and may not hold up in court. “The Endangered Species Act itself does not permit this kind of wholesale rollback of the act’s science-based protections of species habitat that are inherent in allowing species to recover from the brink of extinction,” Courchesne said. Parenteau said opponents may try to get a lower court to issue a preliminary injunction, which would prevent the change from taking effect while the case is argued. “The strategy that the challengers are pursuing is to tie up the rule in court long enough so that the Trump administration is out of power, and a new administration could come in in time to reverse what they have done, reinstate the harm rule, and avoid a showdown in the U.S. Supreme Court,” Parenteau said. Tara Miller, forest and wildlife program director at the Vermont Natural Resource Council, said that despite the federal changes, the organization will concentrate on improving state-level environmental protections. Currently, the group is focusing on programs that prevent forest division to increase the amount of connected habitat for species. Miller acknowledged that debates over land use can be tough for municipalities trying to implement conservation initiatives while addressing the needs of their residents. Miller said, however, that they see enforcing these environmental policies as a force for good. “If we look decades back to when we didn’t have these kinds of environmental regulations, there were so many negative impacts,” Miller said. “Things are always a balance, but it’s really important to have these regulations as an opportunity both to review projects and make sure that they’re what we want, for our needs, for our values and our communities.” Read the story on VTDigger here: Federal change to Endangered Species Act could affect Vermont’s vulnerable wildlife. ...read more read less