H.904 – Amendment to Support Intact, Healthy Forests (Vote to suspend the rules)

Pro-environment vote: YES

H.904 would have added new criteria to require that projects going through Act 250 be designed to avoid, minimize, or mitigate fragmentation of the state’s highest priority forest blocks and habitat connectivity areas. Senator Starr moved to strip the fragmentation language. This vote was for a suspension of the rules to allow the Act 250 and forest fragmentation language to remain in the bill, but the vote to suspend the rules was defeated and the language was pulled from the bill.

Status: Amendment failed, so fragmentation language was stripped from the bill; Senate vote 15-12 (rules suspension requires support from three-quarters of members present).