Though industry lawyers are accustomed to involvement from conservation groups and others affected by alleged environmental harms, this was far from a standard intervenor motion. The filing came from the environment itself — the Little Mahoning Creek and all the water and land ecosystems that feed into it. The motion — which also lists a more traditional party, the grass-roots East Run Hellbenders Society — invokes “rights of nature,” a doctrine that purports to give certain legal rights to elements of nature, including trees, mountains and entire ecosystems.  More …