Owing to the great interest generated by the proposed boundary changes, the NPS issued a statement in July 1952 giving reasons why it would not be “advisable to eliminate from the Monument the grasslands west of the Pinnacles, as suggested by the South Dakota Stock Growers Association.”[211] It said in part that
These flatter lands with their cover of native grasses and wildflowers, typical of the surrounding prairie country, are valuable for park and wildlife purposes. The preservation of this relatively small exhibit of native grass is an important responsibility in itself, since no comparable section of the Great Plains has been set apart to be preserved in its natural condition.[212]
The statement also indicated that about 31,700 acres of other lands were to be eliminated from the national monument, including more than 12,000 acres of privately owned lands. It indicated that the Soil Conservation Service agreed to these revisions and that they were “the same as those which the Congress considered when it authorized boundary revisions by enacting Public Law 328.”[213]
On October 3, 1952, Assistant Secretary of the Interior Joel D. Wolfsohn issued an order revising the boundary of the national monument. The order showed that 30,802.52 acres, more or less, were “hereby transferred from the Department of the Interior to the Department of Agriculture for use, administration, and disposition in accordance with the provisions of Title III of the Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Act....” This reduced the size of Badlands National Monument, according to the order, to 121,883.12 acres.[214]
The Order was performed to provide lands for the Soil Conservation Service to enable those persons having private land in the monument to trade for Soil Conservation Service lands outside the monument, and to make a few administrative adjustments in the monument boundary.[215]
However, discrepancies in the land records led the NPS to investigate the status of lands within the former boundary.[216] By late 1953 it was found that 31,442.52 acres were eliminated from the national monument by the October 3 order instead of 30,802.52 acres. Of these 12,916.32 acres were private lands; the remaining 18,526.20 acres were transferred to the Soil Conservation Service of the Department of Agriculture.[217]