To some who drive the roads of eastern Freeborn County, there’s little to identify the Moscow State Game Refuge.

“Nothing special really sticks out. Part of it’s agricultural land. There’s Turtle Creek running through part of it. Some of it is wooded lots, so it looks like any other surrounding area in that Moscow Township area,” said Tom Hutchins, conservation officer with the Department of Natural Resources.

However, Moscow Township is known as a scenic place. The game refuge is one aspect of a township with an undulating landscape that is dominated with corn and soybean fields but seems to have a greater number of woods, prairie and pastures. Perhaps it seems that way because the rolling hills make the landscape more visible to passing motorists.

For instance, from an elevated point on Freeborn County Road 25, drivers can look across a dale where pastures and prairie dip to Turtle Creek, which with its steep man-made banks looks more like a drainage ditch than a creek. Or by driving nice and slow down gravel 902nd Avenue, they witness wildflowers in abundance in tallgrass prairies, with stands of woods in the distance.

It is a peaceful place to live.

About the best way to find the Moscow State Game Refuge is by looking for the little, black-and-white signs that say “State Game Refuge” on the area’s borders.

Most state game refuges date from the 1940s. They allow the DNR to have areas where game animals can be protected from hunting. This bolsters their populations, making for better hunting seasons in the region.

“They kind of date back to when we didn’t have a real good science for how to regulate hunting to make sure that we had sustained game populations other than by providing areas of refuge,” said Jeanine Vorland, area wildlife manager with the DNR.

Since then, the science of sustaining gaming populations has improved, so game refuges don’t play as big a role as they once did.

Roads serve as the boundaries for most refuges. The 1,120-acre Moscow State Game Refuge is bordered by County Road 25 to the north and County Road 34 to the west — both are paved roads. Gravel 230th Street marks the south, and the Mower County line is the eastern boundary.

The DNR annually chooses whether to open or close the game refuge. The Moscow State Game Refuge is presently open for small game and trapping. The refuge is closed to duck hunting, but it’s open to turkey, pheasant and goose hunting. It’s open to both firearm and archery deer hunting.

The DNR can form a game refuge on public. Private refuges are made by petition. The Moscow refuge is entirely private property. Vorland said such refuges can be created by a petition of landowners or by a petition of 50 Freeborn County residents or more. Vorland said the Moscow refuge was created through a county petition, followed by a meeting and a hearing.

Another petition is the only way for the Moscow State Game Refuge to cease to be a game refuge.

Since the Moscow State Game Refuge is privately owned, private property laws apply to the land. The landowners decide who, if anyone, is allowed to hunt on the property. If the DNR were to close the land to hunting, the landowners cannot hunt or allow anyone to hunt the land.

Brian Sorenson owns land in the Moscow State Game Refuge, and he said the fact that it’s a game refuge does not play a big part in how he manages his property: “I seldom think about it,” he said.

Sorenson farms and owns the Oakwood Trails Campground on his property.

Few people approach Sorenson wanting to hunt on his land because of the refuge. However, he said people approach him because the land is not often hunted. While he occasionally hunts pheasants on his property, Sorenson said he seldom hunts because more abundant wildlife is good for the campground.

“The wildlife is nice to see but that’s not because of the game refuge, that’s because I don’t allow hunting,” Sorenson said.

At the same time, Sorenson said he thinks game refuges are positive tools to use if the deer population was threatened.

Controlling deer hunting was a primary purpose the refuges were created. People could shoot as many deer as they chose during hunting seasons, and the deer population was nearly eliminated from southern Minnesota by the beginning of the 20th century, Vorland said.

There is little need for deer refuges today because the DNR can better the deer population through other means.

Hunting seasons and bag limits have served as the primary gaming management tools in the last 50 to 60 years.

“There still is some need for areas that are closed for hunting; it’s just especially effective for migratory waterfowl. It’s pretty well established that they do need some areas where they’re protected from hunting so they have places to rest,” Vorland said.

The refuges are not wildlife sanctuaries that protect habitat and restrict human contact. The land is primarily agricultural with both crop and pasture land. Turtle Creek runs through the property, providing good refuge for ducks, and there are also some wooded lots.

Game refuges don’t supply any habitat protection, so Vorland said there’s little refuge opportunities for game animals. This is one of the reasons many game refuges have been vacated in the last 20 years. However, Vorland said there’s quite a bit of habitat remaining in the Moscow State Game Refuge.

“It doesn’t provide any habitat protection. It’s just a matter of being able to close it to hunting. And at the time that most of these were created, that was our primary management tool,” Vorland said.

Another major game refuge in Freeborn County is the Albert Lea Game Refuge, which is closed to all water fowl hunting. That refuge includes Myre-Big Island State Park, Albert Lea Lake and some areas surrounding the park and the lake. Only the private land of the Albert Lea refuge is open to any hunting.

Vorland said hunters should annually check the DNR’s hunting and tracking regulation book to see what hunting is allowed in game refuges. She also stressed that hunters must have the permission of property owners to hunt on private land.