In 1933, America created Roosevelt’s “Tree Army”; nine years later, more than three million men had planted billions of trees and helped build hundreds of state parks

When the Great Depression left millions of Americans without any jobs, the United States responded to the crisis with a major conservation programme. In 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) as a part of his New Deal, which focused on recruiting unemployed young men to restore forests, fight soil erosion and develop public parks. According to the U.S. National Park Service (NPS), the programme, popularly nicknamed Roosevelt’s Tree Army, operated for nine years and enrolled more than three million men between 1933 and 1942. Notably, during this period, CCC workers planted three billion trees, protected 20 million acres from soil erosion and helped establish 800 state parks, leaving an environmental legacy that continues to shape the country’s landscapes today.

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