The Trump administration made a change to the language of the Endangered Species Act that environmental groups are concerned will open protected habitats to development.

On Friday, the U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Department of Commerce announced that the definition of the word “harm” would be rescinded from the 1973 Endangered Species Act.

The definition, first outlined in 1975 and revised in 1981, defined “harm” as “an act which actually kills or injures wildlife. Such an act may include significant habitat modification or degradation where it actually kills or injures wildlife by significantly impairing essential behavioral patterns, including breeding, feeding or sheltering.”  A 1995 ruling by the Supreme Court upheld that the definition would prohibit “habitat modification or degradation” due to the potential threats posed to endangered animals.