Executive Order 6684—Authorizing the Purchase or Rental of Land for Emergency Conservation Work

Whereas it is necessary to purchase or rent various lands in order to provide suitable refuges for, and to protect and conserve, migratory birds and other wild life constituting depleted natural resources of the United States; and

Whereas the work and improvements necessary to be performed and made upon such lands to make them suitable and proper refuges for migratory birds and other wild life will provide protection for such lands from forest fires, floods and soil erosion, and plant pest and disease, and aid in the restoration of the country's depleted natural resources; and

Whereas the purchase of such lands will provide employment for citizens of the United States who are unemployed;

Now, Therefore, by virtue of and pursuant to the authority vested in me by the act of Congress entitled "An act for the relief of unemployment through the performance of useful public work, and for other purposes", approved March 31, 1933 (48 Stat. 22), the purchase or rental of such lands as are suitable for the aforesaid purposes is hereby authorized; and by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Fourth Deficiency Act, fiscal year 1933, approved June 16, 1933 (48 Stat. 274), the sum of $1,000,000 is hereby allocated for the purchase or rental of such lands (including the costs incident to purchase or rental) from the appropriation made by the said deficiency act for carrying into effect the provisions of the said act of March 31, 1933.

The sum herein allocated shall be transferred by the Treasury Department to the credit of the War Department for the purchase or rental of such lands (including the costs incident to purchase or rental) and shall, upon request of the Chief of Finance, under direction of the Director of Emergency Conservation Work, be transferred by the Treasury to the credit of the Department of Agriculture, and the funds so transferred shall be withdrawn on requisition by the Secretary of Agriculture.

FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT

The White House,
April 19, 1934.