WORK OF THE UNITED STATES FOREST SERVICE 33 
CIVILIAN CONSERVATION CORPS 
On March 21, 1933, President Roosevelt asked Congress for legis- 
lation to help relieve distress, to give men particularly young men— 
a chance for healthful employment and to accomplish constructive 
conservation work in our vast Federal, State, and private forest and 
park properties. Congress enacted that legislation, and on April 5 
the President appointed a Director of Emer gency Conservation 
Work. 
The Civilian Conservation Corps was created by the act of March 
31, 1933, and within a few days 25,000 men were enrolled. By April 
18 the first camp, near Luray, Va., in the George Washington Na- 
tional Forest, was occupied. In 3 months more than 300,000 men 
had been enrolled. 
F-281486 
FIGURE 26.—Boys of the C. C. C. fighting a forest fire in Oregon. 
This enrollment figure has varied. On October 1, 1935, it had 
reached a high mark of 500,000 men, working in more than 2,400 
camps in every State in the Union and in Alaska, Puerto Rico, Ha- 
wail, and the Virgin Islands. The corps was later reduced to 
normal strength of 350,000. Most of the camps were assigned to 
work projects under the jurisdiction of the Department of Agri- 
culture, the remainder under the Department of the Interior. “Of 
the agriculture camps, the greater number have been under the gen- 
eral supervision of the Forest Service, operating on national forests, 
State forests, and private forest lands. 
In addition to these two Federal Departments, the Binene ency Con- 
servation Work program as established called for the collaboration 
of two others—the Department of Labor to direct the enrollment of 
the men, and the War Department to transport, feed, and clothe the 
men and to operate the camps. 
All forestry projects of the C. C. C. camps on National, State, or 
private forest lands are supervised by the Forest Service, which plans 
