"The Interior Department is moving to formally define "habitat" in the Endangered Species Act, part of an anticipated second wave of changes to the bedrock conservation law under the Trump administration.

According to a notice published Monday by the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, the addition to the ESA is undergoing interagency review.

Interior's Fish and Wildlife Service and the Commerce Department's NOAA Fisheries are overseeing the proposed revisions.

The issue became a point of contention during a legal battle over FWS plans to protect the dusky gopher frog in Louisiana and the rights of private landowners, including timber giant Weyerhaeuser Co."

Jennifer Yachnin reports for Greenwire December 27, 2019. [2]