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.