How Is The Civilian Conservation Corps Changing The Physical Landscape Of The Progressive Era?

Neil M. Maher wrote Nature’s New Deal to argue the idea that the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was one of the most important New Deal programs of the Progressive Era. The author explains how the programs popularity not only changed the physical landscape of the United States, but also the political landscape. The Civilian Conservation Corps began on the Massanuteen Mountains in the George Washington National Forest in 1933. The climbing of a pine tree, by John Ripley was the beginning of changing the natural landscape across America (Pg. 3). Between the years of 1933 and 1942 over three million men enrolled in the CCC. These men helped plant more than two billion trees, 10,000 reservoirs, 46,000 vehicular bridges, motor roads, 800 state

The Corps projects and impact of their work was seen in “the towns and villages neighboring the more than 5,000 camps nationwide” (Pg. 115). Ecological changes began altering local economies and changing physical landscapes, such as Coon Valley, Wisconsin with the production of dairy farms. This allowed local farmers to ship their dairy products to distant markets, which created the idea that “natural resources were commodities ripe for exploitation” and symbolized “a farmer’s competence to the wider community” (Pg. 118-119). With the arrival of camps, also known as “bright spots” in the Great Smokey Mountains, portions of hillsides were replanted, forest floors were “fire proofed”, and motor roads were built throughout national parks (Pg. 135-137). Thousands of natural landscapes left behind by the Civilian Conservation Corps are still seen across the country in farms, forests, and parks. These physical changes to the environment in turn helped locals with their economical problems and altered how Americans and locals viewed the nature surrounding

The conflict of whether or not to dam the Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park to provide water for San Francisco explains the “conservationist ideology” as well connecting the natural resource policy over the expanding power of the federal state (Pg. 4-5). The Echo dam added the topic of ecology and recreation into the debate between conservationists and preservationists (Pg 5). The New Deal was introduced to the public in ways that “raised political for Roosevelt’s liberal welfare state” (Pg. 14). Roosevelt promoted conservation policies, such as the Roosevelt- Jones Bill and the Hewitt Amendment, which increased his political power. The president also transformed millions of acres of unused land into timberland reforestation and sponsored social programs, such as Boy Scouts of America (Pg. 24-25). By physically representing “material benefits of the welfare state to millions of rural Americans from every region of the country”, Roosevelt was able to spread the New Deal program. This is illustrated through the specific placement of Corps forestry projects in forested regions, such as New England, Mid-Atlantic, Great Lakes, and the West Coast, where his support for the 1932 election was weak (Pg. 76). This rise of support in every region of the country is a primary example of how the CCC work influenced the conservation and the