An easement refuge is a special type of National Wildlife Refuge under the auspices of the

United States Fish and Wildlife Service The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS or FWS) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior dedicated to the management of fish, wildlife, and natural habitats. The mission of the agency is "working with othe ...

(FWS). Such refuges exist on privately owned land, with the law of

easement An easement is a nonpossessory right to use and/or enter onto the real property of another without possessing it. It is "best typified in the right of way which one landowner, A, may enjoy over the land of another, B". An easement is a propert ...

s guaranteeing their status. On an easement refuge, the Refuge boundaries encompass private land and the Fish and Wildlife Service does not own the land. Instead, through the use of a

conservation easement In the United States, a conservation easement (also called conservation covenant, conservation restriction or conservation servitude) is a power invested in a qualified private land conservation organization (often called a "land trust") or gover ...

, the FWS maintains the

water right Water right in water law refers to the right of a user to use water from a water source, e.g., a river, stream, pond or source of groundwater. In areas with plentiful water and few users, such systems are generally not complicated or contentiou ...

s and the right to restrict "hunting , trapping and willful disturbance of any bird or wild animal of any kind whatsoever within the limits of the refuge or to enter thereon...". However, the private landowner reserves the right to

hay Hay is grass, legumes, or other herbaceous plants that have been cut and dried to be stored for use as animal fodder, either for large grazing animals raised as livestock, such as cattle, horses, goats, and sheep, or for smaller domesticat ...

, graze,

burn A burn is an injury to skin, or other tissues, caused by heat, cold, electricity, chemicals, friction, or ultraviolet radiation (like sunburn). Most burns are due to heat from hot liquids (called scalding), solids, or fire. Burns occur ma ...

and manage the land with only minimal intervention from the Service.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Easement Refuge United States Fish and Wildlife Service