*Includes pictures *Includes accounts written by CCC workers *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading *Includes a table of contents "I propose to create [the CCC] to be used in complex work, not interfering with abnormal employment, and confining itself to forestry, the prevention of soil erosion, flood control and similar projects. I call your attention to the fact that this type of work is of definite, practical value, not only through the prevention of great present financial loss, but also as a means of creating future national wealth." - President Franklin D. Roosevelt In 1932, America faced an economic crisis even more severe than the one it has been experiencing recently. The issue then, as now, was how to address it. When President Franklin Roosevelt came into office, he faced more economic problems than any president since has ever faced, but he came equipped with unique and creative solutions to them. One of his most important programs was the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), which recruited and employed more than two million young men in the prime of life and put them to work in the much threatened forests and farms around the nation. He gave these young men jobs, something they could be proud of doing, and offered them a level of education many had been denied. The CCC also taught them discipline and teamwork, skills that easily translated into workplace success. In less than eight years, the CCC planted billions of trees, built thousands of cabins and other rustic buildings, cleared thousands of acres of land, and created thousands of miles of walking and hiking trails. In the process, it shaped the lives of millions of young men, many of whom were dangerously close to embracing a life of crime. It gave them work to do and taught them skills that could later be used in the workplace, but it also taught them to appreciate and care for the land they worked and lived on, inspiring an unprecedented level of admiration for the environment. A generation later, these men would tell their children stories of their work on the land, inspiring an explosion of interest in the environment in the 1960s, a passion that continues to this day. It's often wondered whether such a program would work today, but rather than see the CCC as an inspiration for something that could be done today, it is easier and probably more accurate to view it as an old-fashioned idea that worked in a world very different from the one we live in today