Work Done
The work done by many in these camps included forestry, repairment of riparian areas, landscaping, and the building of trails. One of the most important impacts of the Civilian Conservation Corps was the stocking of wildlife such as deer, black bears, and bobcats. Essentially the majority of the work was done on federal land to help repair land that was in bad shape.[1] In one the Civilian Conservation Corps newspapers from Camp Gallion, “4,100 ft. forest fire lookout towers erected, 500 acres of forest thinning, 2 miles of stream improvement, 94 miles of forest lines” and “45,000 trees planted."[2] Trees that were dead were cut and were used for other purposes such as heating and timber.[3] This would enable them to save other trees that were not prone to Chesnut Blight and replant trees where deads trees once were.[4] The Civilian Conservation Corps would help the Department of Agriculture and also state agencies worked together in hopes of creating a Blight resistant Chesnut tree.[5] Many dams were being built in Henry County, Virginia both temporary and permanent.[6] The goal of the forest and the parks were to keep the parks as natural as possible.[7] They kept this way by cutting as much living timber as little as possible, which resulted in some of the most important trails being created across the country.[8] By 1939, the Civilian Conservation Corps has planted 1,250,000,000 trees on denuded lands, and it has gathered 500,000 bushels of pine cones from which to obtain seed for the growth of young trees in forest nurseries.[9]
To further forest fire prevention and control it has constructed 96,000 miles of fire truck trails, built 2,500 fire lookout towers, and devoted 4,000,000 man-days to the actual fighting of forest fires.[10] It has fought tree-killing insects on 10,000,000 acres and eliminated tree-destroying diseases of 6,750,000 acres.[11] It has stocked depleted streams with 465,000,000 young fish, so that millions of fisherman may pursue the favorite American sport.[13] Other activities were planting vegetation and the creation of windbreaks to prevent erosion on farmlands.[14] In Shenandoah national park alone, "Reduction of fire hazards Pinnacle Mtn. 300 acres...roadside cleanup Skyline Drive 3 miles, campground clearing [of trees and shrubs] Sexton [Pinnacles] 40 acres, horse trail Pinnacle[s] to Marys Rock 3 miles, Trailside cleanup same 3 miles; landscaping, fine grading Skyline drive 200 cubic yards., sodding 2 acres, moving and plant trees Skyline drive 1,000 trees and shrubs; telephone line Thornton Gap to Stony Man 7 miles, other campground facilities and park area signs, boundary, etc."[15] One camp member remarked, "We planted, we planted shrubbery, you know, and . . . fighting forest fires." "I think it was, I think at that time that we did better work than the WPA!"[16] " Other projects were erosion control such as "we trimmed the rocks out and sloped the banks down so erosion wouldn't set in, and then plant grass" and this was in line with many of the soil conservation ideas of the era.[17] Other work includes building hiking trails, making the parks more accessible for recreation.[18]
1.Neil M. Maher, Nature's New Deal: the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Roots of the American Environmental Movement (New York, Oxford University Press, 2008), pg.7
2.Fred Ainsworth et al., “Enrollee's Home Journal, Volume 1, Number 7, 6 April 1937,” Enrollee's Home Journal 6 April 1937 - Virginia Chronicle: Digital Newspaper Archive (VirginiaChronicle), accessed April 16, 2020, https://virginiachronicle.com/?a=d&d=EHJ19370406&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-civilian+conservation+corps------
3. Joy K. Stiles, Interview with Isaac Louderback, version Interview (Luray, VA: Shenandoah National Park Archives, 1995), https://www.nps.gov/shen/learn/historyculture/upload/ccc_oral_history_isaac_louderback.pdf)
6. John C. Lynch et al., eds., “Cynosure, Volume 1, Number 4, 31 December 1935,” Cynosure 31 December 1935 - Virginia Chronicle: Digital Newspaper Archive (VirginiaChronicle), accessed May 7, 2020, https://virginiachronicle.com/?a=d&d=CY19351231.1.4&srpos=16&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-civilian+conservation+corps-------)
7..Neil M. Maher, Nature's New Deal: the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Roots of the American Environmental Movement (New York, Oxford University Press, 2008), pg.72
8. Joy K. Stiles, Interview with Isaac Louderback, version Interview (Luray, VA: Shenandoah National Park Archives, 1995), https://www.nps.gov/shen/learn/historyculture/upload/ccc_oral_history_isaac_louderback.pdf)
9. James Whitehead, John Petro, and David Schwab, “Nira News, 1 October 1939,” Nira News 1 October 1939 - Virginia Chronicle: Digital Newspaper Archive (VirginiaChronicle), accessed May 7, 2020, https://virginiachronicle.com/?a=d&d=NN19391001.1.6&e=-------en-20--21--txt-txIN-civilian+conservation+corps-------)
10. Ibid
11. Ibid
12. Joy K. Stiles and Kenneth Steeber, Interview with John Shuda and Beatrice Shuda, version Interview (Luray, VA: Shenandoah National Park Archives, 1994), https://www.nps.gov/shen/learn/historyculture/upload/ccc_oral_history_john_shuda.pdf)
13. James Whitehead, John Petro, and David Schwab, “Nira News, 1 October 1939,” Nira News 1 October 1939 - Virginia Chronicle: Digital Newspaper Archive (VirginiaChronicle), accessed May 7, 2020, https://virginiachronicle.com/?a=d&d=NN19391001.1.6&e=-------en-20--21--txt-txIN-civilian+conservation+corps-------)
14. Joy Stiles and Kenneth Steeber, Interview with Clinton Harris Dean, version Interview (Luray, VA: Shenandoah National Park Archives, 1995), https://www.nps.gov/shen/learn/historyculture/upload/ccc_oral_history_dean_clinton.pdf)
15. Ibid
16. Ibid
17. Joy K. Stiles, Interview with Isaac Louderback, version Interview (Luray, VA: Shenandoah National Park Archives, 1995), https://www.nps.gov/shen/learn/historyculture/upload/ccc_oral_history_isaac_louderback.pdf)
18. Joy K. Stiles, Interview with Isaac Louderback, version Interview (Luray, VA: Shenandoah National Park Archives, 1995), https://www.nps.gov/shen/learn/historyculture/upload/ccc_oral_history_isaac_louderback.pdf)