16 U.S.C. § 410hhh–4 — Baca National Wildlife Refuge, Colorado

(a) Establishment and purpose (1)(A) When the Secretary decides enough land has been acquired to be run efficiently as a National Wildlife Refuge, the Secretary must create the Baca National Wildlife Refuge, generally following the boundaries on the map. (B) The refuge officially exists once the Secretary publishes notice of that decision in the Federal Register. (2) The refuge's purpose is to restore, improve, and maintain wetland, upland, riparian, and other habitats for native wildlife, plants, and fish in the San Luis Valley. (b) Availability of map The map must be kept on file and open for public inspection at the appropriate United States Fish and Wildlife Service offices. (c) Administration (1) The Secretary must run all acquired land inside the refuge under the National Wildlife Refuge System Administration Act of 1966 and the Refuge Recreation Act of 1962. (2) As much as practical, the Secretary must (A) emphasize protecting migratory birds, and (B) consider the refuge's role in bigger landscape conservation efforts. (d) Protection of water resources In managing the refuge's water, the Secretary must (1) protect and maintain the irrigation water rights needed to protect the resources and uses of the monument, park, preserve, and refuge; (2) keep harm to other water users as low as possible while still protecting refuge resources; and (3) subject to any agreement in place as of March 11, 2009, and consistent with the refuge's purposes, use decreed water rights on the refuge roughly the way they have always been used.