Does the Service have any other guidance on minerals, mining, oil, and gas?
Yes. For more information on minerals, mining, oil, and gas, see 612 FW 1 and 612 FW 2. These chapters describe our policy and give guidance for managing these types of activities on Refuge System lands. 3.7 What do these terms mean? A. Excepted Rights. Any rights outstanding to a third party when the United States (Service) acquires title to lands. The owner of excepted (outstanding) rights has the right to sell, lease, explore for, and remove those minerals subject to the terms of the instrument used to acquire or reserve the lands and to the State laws governing protection of the surface and the rights of the surface owner. B. Mitigation. Mitigation includes measures that: (1) Avoid an impact altogether by not taking a certain action or parts of an action; (2) Minimize impacts by limiting the degree or magnitude of the action and its implementation; (3) Rectify the impact by repairing, rehabilitating, or restoring the affected environment; (4) Reduce or eliminate the impact over tim
