Education
While enrollees were found in equal numbers from rural and urban areas, many of them knew very little about conservation.[1] Many of the men were not familiar with the flora and fauna of these remote areas they were working in. Due to the many of them afraid of the wilderness, they at first created havoc upon wildlife.[2] Less than 10 percent graduated from high school, and only 3 percent had attended some form of college, so they were ignorant of natural resources and conservation.[3]
Robert Fechner greatly expanded learning opportunities when he authorized the establishment of libraries to Corps camps across the country and allowed funding for being stocked with 45 different periodicals and approximately 150 books, many of which were education volumes based on foresty and nature study [4]. Enrollees and people with practical training and experience were called upon to assist with the teaching phase of the work.[5] The camps would also place conservation professionals in each camp to oversee work projects, to teach enrollees the skills to undertake projects, and instruct enrollees in the theoretical underpinnings of conservation.[6] The main goal of their conservation was to thin forest to create a more efficient forest.[7] One enrollee remarked, "I knew nothing about our forest and why so much should be taken of them".[8] Other enrollee remarked, "Before my enrollment, I knew nothing of conservation".[9]
The Corps often cooperated with farmers about the importance of sustainable farming, and the importance of soil scientists.[10] The scientific farming project was carried out in the form project and those ideas were passed to company commanders and education advisers to teach those in conservation science.[11] These ideas were slowly were becoming more popular in the Corps camps itself and helped contour more than 2 million acres, and plant cover crops on more than 250,000 acres.[12]
According to a Civilian Conservation Corps study undertaken in 1937, of the ninety-seven classes, in different classes offered in corps camps, classes in foresty ranked second in popularity among enrollees.[13]
Much of the emphasis on education was not only on natural resources but also on human resources too.[14] They believed the conservation of human resources was as equally as important as the conservation of natural resources.[15] The belief in going outdoors would give through to the otherwise malnourished men.[16]
1. Neil M. Maher, Nature's New Deal: the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Roots of the American Environmental Movement (New York, Oxford University Press, 2008), pg.86
2. Ibid
3. Ibid
4. Neil M. Maher, Nature's New Deal: the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Roots of the American Environmental Movement (New York, Oxford University Press, 2008), pg.88
5. Neil M. Maher, Nature's New Deal: the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Roots of the American Environmental Movement (New York, Oxford University Press, 2008)
6. Neil M. Maher, Nature's New Deal: the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Roots of the American Environmental Movement (New York, Oxford University Press, 2008)
7.Neil M. Maher, Nature's New Deal: the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Roots of the American Environmental Movement (New York, Oxford University Press, 2008), pg.87
8. Neil M. Maher, Nature's New Deal: the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Roots of the American Environmental Movement (New York, Oxford University Press, 2008), pg.86
9. Ibid
10. Neil M. Maher, Nature's New Deal: the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Roots of the American Environmental Movement (New York, Oxford University Press, 2008),pg.124
11. Ibid
12. Ibid
13.Neil M. Maher, Nature's New Deal: the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Roots of the American Environmental Movement (New York, Oxford University Press, 2008), pg.90
14.Neil M. Maher, Nature's New Deal: the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Roots of the American Environmental Movement (New York, Oxford University Press, 2008), pg.102-103
15.Ibid
16.Ibid