When was the civilian conservation corps passed

Maher asserts that the CCC was instrumental in the transfer of those ideals to the uneducated, the immigrant, and the jobless, forever changing not just how the landscape was preserved, but who preserved the landscape.

Author has provided permission to use this article. View online book link. Robert Leighninger, Jr. Many of these men had been roaming the country in a desperate search for jobs.

More than 3,, men were enrolled in the CCC between and [5]. They finally authorized a modified proposal after much debate. The CCC lost its status as an independent organization and was brought into the new organization.

Fechner was furious when he learned the Director of FSA would have authority over him. Appeals to the President were futile as FDR believed the consolidation was important. In an angry protest, Fechner submitted his resignation, but later withdrew it. Some felt that withdrawing his resignation was a mistake for it was common knowledge that Fechner was in poor health.

Fechner was the CCC. His honest, day by day attention to all facets of the program sustained high levels of accomplishment and shaped an impressive public image of the CCC. He was a common man, neither impressed nor intimidated by his contemporaries in Washington. Fechner was considered deficient and lacking vision in some areas but his dedication was second to none.

His lengthy and detailed progress reports to FDR were valuable information. He was a good and faithful servant who was spared from witnessing the end of the CCC program. In the Civilian Conservation Corps began a year of change. The death of Fechner was a severe blow and the emerging war in Europe was the greatest concern to Roosevelt and Congress.

John J. McEntee was appointed by the Congress to be Director. He was as knowledgeable as Fechner as he had been the assistant since the beginning. McEntee was an entirely different personality without the appeasing talents of his predecessor, and none of his patience. Harold Ickes, another short-tempered individual, strongly opposed his appointment.

He served in a different, uncertain atmosphere and received little praise for his efforts. The Corps itself continued to be popular. Another election year attempt by the President to reduce its strength precipitated a reaction reminiscent of the congressional revolt of Also, the Corps remained at the current strength of about , enrollees, Congress would never again be as generous.

Other problems were developing within the Congress related to the defense of the country. Inevitably, the priority and prestige of the CCC suffered with each crisis. By late summer, , it was obvious the Corps was in serious trouble. Lack of applicants, desertion and the number of enrollees leaving for jobs had reduced the Corps to fewer than , men in about camps. There were also disturbing signs that public opinion was slowly changing.

Major newspapers that had long defended and supported the Corps, were now questioning the necessity of retaining the CCC when unemployment had practically disappeared. Most agreed there was still work to be done, but they insisted defense came first. The bombing of Pearl Harbor had shaken the country to its very core.

It soon became obvious that, in a nation dedicated to war, any federal project not directly associated with the war effort was not a priority. The joint committee of Congress authorized by the appropriations bill was investigating all federal agencies to determine which ones, if any, were essential to the war effort. The CCC was no exception and came under review late in It was not a surprise that the committee recommended the Civilian Conservation Corps be abolished by July 1, The CCC lived on for a few more months, but the end was inevitable.

Technically, the Corps was never abolished. In June by a narrow vote of to , the House of Representatives curtailed funding.

The Senate reached a tie vote twice. The full Senate confirmed the action by voice vote and the Civilian Conservation Corps moved into the pages of history. Back to Top. Roots of the conservation corps concept. In , the Scottish essayist Thomas Carlyle wrote that unemployed men should be organized into regiments to drain bogs and work in wilderness areas for the betterment of society.

In , conservationist George H. Maxwell proposed that young men be enrolled into a national conservation corps. Their duties would include forest and plains conservation work, to fight forest fires, flood control, and the reclamation of swamp and desert lands. In , Franklin Roosevelt was elected Governor of New York and in the New York legislature passed a law to purchase abandoned or sub-marginal farmlands for reforestation.

In , the state government set up a temporary emergency relief administration. The unemployed were hired to work in reforestation projects, clearing underbrush, fighting fires, controlling insects, constructing roads and trails, and developing recreation facilities. At the same time New York State was developing their conservation and reforestation program, other states including California, Washington, Virginia, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Indiana, were hiring or planning for the unemployed to do conservation work.

The states of California and Washington, in cooperation with the U. Forest Service developed work camps for the unemployed.

By , California had established 25 camps of men each. By , an estimated million people were out of work. Farms were being abandoned, more than , businesses went bankrupt and more than 2, banks had shut their doors. From an environmental perspective, only million acres of an original million acres of virgin forests were left and 6 billion tons of top soil were lost to wind and erosion each year.

The Post War Years. In the years following the end of World War II and the Korean Conflict, several attempts were made by conservation groups to re-establish the program. The concept of engaging young people as park volunteers was suggested by Elizabeth Cushman in her senior thesis, "A Proposed Student Conservation Corps". This bill passed the Senate by a vote of , but due to opposition by the Eisenhower Administration, the House refused to consider it.

Several attempts to establish a youth conservation corps during the Kennedy Administration failed. Rebirth of conservation corps programs. It was in that a youth conservation corps program would finally develop. Forest Service. These conservation centers would be just one of several types of Job Corps Centers that also included male or female urban centers. At first, the Job Corps specifically designed the conservation centers for enrollees with less than a 5th grade reading level.

Enrollees stayed at conservation centers until their reading level improved and then were transferred to urban centers for vocational training. As a result of this criticism, the policy of separating youth by educational level was which gave the conservation centers equal status with other types of Job Corps centers. By , however, there was, in the words of CCC director Fechner, a "complete segregation of colored and white enrollees," but "segregation is not discrimination.

An important modification became necessary early in It extended enlistment coverage to about 14, American Indians whose economic circumstances were deplorable and had mostly been ignored. Before the CCC was terminated, more than 80, Native Americans were paid to help reclaim the land that had once been theirs. In addition, in May , the president authorized the enrollment of about 25, veterans of the Spanish American War and World War I , with no age or marital restrictions.

This made it possible for more than , veterans to rebuild lives disrupted by earlier service to their country. Educational programs were developed that varied considerably from camp to camp, both in efficiency and results. More than 90 percent of all enrollees participated in some facet of the educational program. Throughout the CCC, more than 40, illiterate men were taught to read and write. Leaving its mark on the land By , there was hardly a state that could not boast of permanent projects left as markers by the CCC.

The CCC worked on improving millions of acres of federal and state lands, as well as parks. New roads were built, telephone lines strung, and trees planted. CCC projects included: more than 3, fire towers erected; 97, miles of fire roads built; 4,, man-days devoted to fighting fires; more than 3 billion trees planted; 7,, man days expended on protecting the natural habitats of wildlife; 83 camps in 15 Western states assigned 45 projects of that nature; 46 camps assigned to work under the direction of the U.

Bureau of Agriculture Engineering; more than 84,, acres of good agricultural land receive manmade drainage systems; Indian enrollees do much of that work; 1,, man-days of emergency work completed during floods of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys; disease and insect control; forest improvement — timber stand inventories, surveying, and reforestation; forest recreation development — campgrounds built, complete with picnic shelters, swimming pools, fireplaces, and restrooms.

In addition, camps were under the control of the Soil Conservation Service. The primary work of those camps was erosion control. The CCC also made outstanding contributions to the development of recreational facilities in national, state, county, and metropolitan parks.

By design, the CCC worked on projects that were independent of other public relief programs. Forest Service administered more than 50 percent of all public work projects for the CCC.