In an inspiring middle grade nonfiction work, P. O'Connell Pearson
tells the story of the Civilian Conservation Corps--one of Franklin
Delano Roosevelt's New Deal projects that helped save a generation of
Americans.
When Franklin D. Roosevelt took office in March 1933, the United States
was on the brink of economic collapse and environmental disaster.
Thirty-four days later, the first of over three million impoverished
young men were building parks and reclaiming the nation's forests and
farmlands. The Civilian Conservation Corps--FDR's favorite program and
"miracle of inter-agency cooperation"--resulted in the building and/or
improvement of hundreds of state and national parks, the restoration of
nearly 120 million acre of land, and the planting of some three billion
trees--more than half of all the trees ever planted in the United
States.
Fighting for the Forest tells the story of the Civilian Conservation
Corp through a close look at Shenandoah National Park in Virginia (the
CCC's first project) and through the personal stories and work of young
men around the nation who came of age and changed their country for the
better working in Roosevelt's Tree Army.