ANR urges removing 'rare species' statutory requirement from Tier 1A to keep standards feasible

Billy Co, director of planning and policy for the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, told the Senate Natural Resources & Energy Committee that the agency supports the LURB’s (Land Use Review Board) markup to remove the statutory requirement that towns address "rare species" as part of Tier 1A designation requirements.

Co said: "Act 250 does not currently regulate rare species," and argued that asking towns to provide the same level of protection for a very large set of rare species — for which the agency lacks species‑specific guidance and tools — is an impractical burden on municipalities seeking Tier 1A status.

He explained that while maintaining protections for significant natural communities and for threatened and endangered species remains a priority, the registry and guidance available for threatened or endangered species are much more developed than for the far larger number of taxa considered 'rare.' Requiring towns to identify and plan for all those rare species, he said, would impose onerous technical and administrative tasks without commensurate implementation support.

Co proposed striking the statutory "rare species" requirement while continuing agency partnerships with towns: ANR will share known occurrences and mitigation strategies where rare species are identified during local mapping and plan development.

Committee members asked follow‑up questions about the meaning of "significant natural communities" and the distinction between rare and threatened species. ANR staff said the natural community inventory and rankings exist but that the scale and volume of 'rare' species records make a uniform municipal requirement infeasible. The committee did not take an immediate vote; the testimony will inform forthcoming statutory drafting and committee deliberations.