The Interior Department ordered an immediate eighteen-month moratorium on applications for the purchase of public lands. Interior Secretary Stewart Udall said the decision was designed to halt the sale of useless land to unsuspecting buyers by "unethical land locators and promoters." (1:2) – February 15, 1961
In a message to Congress, the President outlined a broad natural resources program aimed at a population he said would reach 300,000,000 in forty years. His emphasis was on water problems--comprehensive river basin development, flood and stream pollution control and saline water conversion. (1:5; Text, Page 12) – February 24, 1961
Kennedy dedicates wildlife building. (pg. 8) – March 4, 1961
A 26,666-acre strip of dunes, heaths, cliffs and fresh-water ponds on the Atlantic Coast became the Cape Cod National Seashore when the President signed a bill similar to one he himself once sponsored. (16:4) – August 8, 1961
Senate approves water conversion program. (10) – September 1, 1961