Secretary Walters further stated that this project came within the classification of lands as stated in a memorandum to him dated July 16, 1934. In it the Director of the Land Program said:
Demonstration Recreational Projects: These include projects in which the land to be purchased is to be used primarily for recreational purposes, as submitted by the National Park Service, Department of the Interior.[127]
The Secretary of the Interior recommended that the Badlands National Monument Extension be accepted as a Demonstration Recreational Project of the Land Program, FERA. The project was approved and adopted by the Land Program. The NPS expected that the cost of all the lands considered would not average more than $2.66 per acre.[128]
Meanwhile, President Roosevelt, by a series of executive orders, created the Resettlement Administration, an independent agency, and transferred to it the land and related activities of the FERA. The Resettlement Administration operated until the end of 1936 when its powers, functions, and duties were transferred to the Secretary of Agriculture. Later, the name “Resettlement Administration” was changed to the Farm Security Administration.[129]
The work of appraising, securing options on, and purchasing private lands, begun under the submarginal land program of the FERA, continued under the Resettlement Administration.
In a 1935 letter to Assistant NPS Director Conrad L. Wirth, Senator Norbeck pointed out some of the problems and drawbacks of the land acquisition program by writing:
The land varies a great deal in quality, and the poor lands are being obtained for the scheduled price, but the good lands are not.
He went on to say that
A very large percentage of this land, maybe thirty to fifty per cent, is on the tax delinquency list, with about four years of taxes. The price offered is less than the taxes held against the land, and the owner is not anxious to sell if he cannot get a nickel out of it....
Considerable of these lands, however, have already been abandoned by the owner on account of the amount of taxes due.[130]
Counties were reluctant to sell land to the federal government because this would mean withdrawal from the tax lists, thus reducing the counties’ incomes. Norbeck recommended that the federal government pay more for the land by a “boost of one dollar an acre....”[131] Meetings were being held in various parts of the region to protest the low prices being offered.[132]