A QUESTION OF ETHICS
The Endangered Species Act of 1973 makes it unlawful for any person to take endangered or threatened species. The act defines take to mean to harass, harm, pursue, wound, or kill. The secretary of the interior (Bruce Babbitt) issued a regulation that further defined harm to in-clude significant habitat modification or degradation where it actually kills or injures wildlife. A group of businesses and individuals involved in the timber industry brought an action against the secretary of the interior and others. The group complained that the application of the harm regulation to the red-cockaded woodpecker and the northern spotted owl had injured the group economically because it prevented logging operations (habitat modification) in Pacific Northwest forests containing these species. The group challenged the regulation's validity, contending that Congress did not intend the word take to include habitat modification. The case ultimately reached the United States Supreme Court, which held that the secretary reasonably construed Congress's intent when he defined harm to include habitat modification.
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