Origin

    During the 20th century, there was a growing interest in the conservation movement due to the significant destruction the industrialization of America posed to the environment.[1] The land was devastated due to overhunting, overgrazing, and deforestation. Although the situation was grim throughout the United States, the situation was particularly poor in Virginia due to mass deforestation, resulting in the introduction of the Civilian Conservation Corps.[2] The state of Virginia was an important battleground for the ideas of the Corps, beginning at Camp Roosevelt.[3] Right away, Virginia had a rather large number of enrollees to the camp.[4] Many foresters and soil scientists came out to Camp Roosevelt to educate the men on the many ways of environmental conservation.[5] Even one camp member remarked, "I didn't know anything about national parks except what I read in my history books" [6].

    On the eve of his election, Franklin Roosevelt outlined his New Deal programs as emergency programs for many of the problems during the early 1930s.[7] In his speech, he explained why these programs were needed and why the government needs those in distress and curb un-regulated excess.[8] This applies especially with the Civilian Conservation Corps because it protects resources from private hands to be overused and help use reforest and make land that was once unfertile, make arable again.[9] Roosevelt stated the goals of the Corps camps and why they were needed, to promote the idea for Americans to enjoy the outdoors while being employed in the wilderness.[10] The goals of the Civilian Conservation Corps, as stated by Roosevelt, were to conserve nature and create jobs for the unemployed.[11] It was not just the conservation of natural resources for Roosevelt’s new deal programs but also the conservation of human resources.[12] It was important especially for many, that having physically fit men would be important for a good industrial society.[13]

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.23-27

2.James Byrne, Civilian Conservation Corps in Virginia, 1933-1942 (Mansfield, MT: ScholarWorks at the University of Montana, 1982)

3. Ibid

4. Ronald L. Heinemann, Civilian Conservation Corps (Virginia Humanities, August 8, 2014), https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/The_Civilian_Conservation_Corps#start_entry)

5. Ibid

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), pg.282

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.43-44

8.Ibid

9.Ibid

10.Ibid

12.Ibid

13.Ibid