PLEASE NOTE: Legislative Information cannot perform research, provide legal advice, or interpret Maine law. For legal assistance, please contact a qualified attorney.
An Act To Safeguard Imperiled or Critically Imperiled Natural Communities within Protected Natural Resources
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1. 38 MRSA §480-D, sub-§3,  as amended by PL 2001, c. 618, §3, is further amended to read:
 
3. Harm to habitats; fisheries.   The activity will not unreasonably harm any significant wildlife habitat, freshwater wetland plant habitat, threatened or endangered plant habitat, imperiled or critically imperiled natural communities, aquatic or adjacent upland habitat, travel corridor, freshwater, estuarine or marine fisheries or other aquatic life.
 
In determining whether there is unreasonable harm to significant wildlife habitat, the department may consider proposed mitigation if that mitigation does not diminish in the vicinity of the proposed activity the overall value of significant wildlife habitat and species utilization of the habitat and if there is no specific biological or physical feature unique to the habitat that would be adversely affected by the proposed activity. For purposes of this subsection, "mitigation" means any action taken or not taken to avoid, minimize, rectify, reduce, eliminate or compensate for any actual or potential adverse impact on the significant wildlife habitat, including the following:
 
A.  Avoiding an impact altogether by not taking a certain action or parts of an action;
 
B.  Minimizing an impact by limiting the magnitude, duration or location of an activity or by controlling the timing of an activity;
 
C.  Rectifying an impact by repairing, rehabilitating or restoring the affected environment;
 
D.  Reducing or eliminating an impact over time through preservation and maintenance operations during the life of the project; or
 
E.  Compensating for an impact by replacing the affected significant wildlife habitat.
 
SUMMARY
This bill provides protection under the Natural Resource Protection Act for imperiled or critically imperiled natural communities, as identified by the Department of Conservation, that are located within protected natural resources.