The Civilian Conservation Corps

In 1933 President Roosevelt signed the Emergency Conservation Work Act which created the Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC). According to Roosevelt, the CCC served a dual function: "In creating this civilian conservation corps we are clearly enhancing the value of our natural resources and we are relieving an appreciable amount of actual distress."[1]  

The CCC was a work relief program that hired young unemployed men (ages 18-27) to work on conservation projects throughout the U.S. Working out of government administered camps, Corps members received a dollar a day to work on conservation projects such as soil erosion and tree planting, the installation of telephone and power lines, and the construction of buildings, trails, and logging and fire roads throughout the nation's local state, and national parks.[2] The CCC was entirely voluntary and participants were free to leave the Corps at any time. CCC enrollees worked 40 hour weeks for a term of 6 months, receiving 30 dollars a month with a requirement that 25 dollars be sent home to family. While living in the camps enrollees received food, shelter and two pairs of clothes. 

By 1942 when the Congress cut off funding for the CCC some 3 million young men had participated in the program. The CCC was one of the most popular New Deal programs, garnering considerable bipartisan support. A Gallup Poll in 1936 found that 83 percent of the public approved of the CCC and 78 percent wanted to make the program permanent.[3] Although it was eventually disbanded during the war, as an experiment in national youth service the CCC proved highly successful and thus laid the groundwork for future programs of a similar nature.