WORK OF THE UNITED STATES FOREST SERVICE 



33 



CIVILIAN CONSERVATION CORPS 



On March 21, 1933, President Koosevelt 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 Emergency 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. 



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- 

 waii, 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 Emergency 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 



