Abstract
The Civilian Conservation Corps— officially known as Emergency Conservation Work until 1937— was one of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s favorite New Deal programs and certainly one of the most popular among the American people. Roosevelt saw great opportunities in the prospect of an agency which would help stimulate the devastated economy of the nation while salvaging two of its most valuable resources, the land and the nation’s youth. At the president’s urging, Congress enacted a law on March 31, 1933, authorizing emergency conservation work in which 300,000 young men could be employed in wholesome work preserving the nation’s natural resources. Although the rules changed over time, the original idea was to employ single men between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five, primarily from families on relief, who were willing to allot from $22 to $25 of their $30 salaries to their dependents.
Recommended Citation
Shofner, Jerrell H.
(1986)
"Roosevelts "Tree Army": The Civilian Conservation Corps in Florida,"
Florida Historical Quarterly: Vol. 65:
No.
4, Article 4.
Available at:
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/fhq/vol65/iss4/4
