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Title 16 — ConservationRelease 119-73

§715e Examination of title; easements and reservations

Title 16 › Chapter CHAPTER 7— - PROTECTION OF MIGRATORY GAME AND INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS › Subchapter SUBCHAPTER III— - MIGRATORY BIRD CONSERVATION › § 715e

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

The Secretary of the Interior can do what is needed and spend money to get clear legal title to lands bought under this law. The United States will not pay for any land until the Attorney General or his designee is happy with the title. If the land has rights-of-way, easements, or reservations that the Secretary thinks will not interfere with refuge or sanctuary use, those things will not stop the purchase. Any such rights kept by the seller must follow the Secretary’s rules for using, protecting, and running the area as a migratory bird sanctuary or wildlife refuge. The deed or lease must say those rights must follow those rules, or the Secretary can add rules later.

Full Legal Text

Title 16, §715e

Conservation — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

The Secretary of the Interior may do all things and make all expenditures necessary to secure the safe title in the United States to the areas which may be acquired under this subchapter, but no payment shall be made for any such areas until the title thereto shall be satisfactory to the Attorney General or his designee, but the acquisition of such areas by the United States shall in no case be defeated because of rights-of-way, easements, and reservations which from their nature will in the opinion of the Secretary of the Interior in no manner interfere with the use of the areas so encumbered for the purposes of this subchapter, but such rights-of-way, easements, and reservations retained by the grantor or lessor from whom the United States receives title under this subchapter or any other Act for the acquisition by the Secretary of the Interior of areas for wildlife refuges shall be subject to rules and regulations prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior for the occupation, use, operation, protection, and administration of such areas as inviolate sanctuaries for migratory birds or as refuges for wildlife; and it shall be expressed in the deed or lease that the use, occupation, and operation of such rights-of-way, easements, and reservations shall be subordinate to and subject to such rules and regulations as are set out in such deed or lease or, if deemed necessary by the Secretary of the Interior, to such rules and regulations as may be prescribed by him from time to time.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Amendments

1970—Pub. L. 91–393 inserted “or his designee” after “Attorney General”. 1935—Act June 15, 1935, inserted “under said sections or any other Act for the acquisition by the Secretary of Agriculture of areas for wildlife refuges” and “or as refuges for wildlife”, and inserted clause beginning “as are set out in such deed or lease or, if deemed necessary” etc.

Executive Documents

Transfer of Functions

of Secretary of Agriculture to Secretary of the Interior by Reorg. Plan No. II of 1939, see

Transfer of Functions

note set out under section 715a of this title.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

16 U.S.C. § 715e

Title 16 — Conservation

Last Updated

Apr 6, 2026

Release point: 119-73