The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was created in 1933 as one of the first programs headed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) to alleviate youth unemployment during the Great Depression. Young men, ages 18 to 24 provided unskilled manual labor supporting reforestation and building the National Parks System. The Department of Labor recruited the men into the program and set up the outdoor camps they would be living at. Upon joining, they... were provided clothing by the U.S. Army which also managed the camps. Over three million young men joined the CCC in the nine years it was active. They were paid one dollar per day and were offered free room and board. Members of the CCC became known as FDR's "Tree Army" and worked to revitalize the nation's forests and parks by planting trees, setting up state parks, and building roads that connected parks. They built more than 1000 national, state, county and city parks and planted over three billion trees across the nation. To this day, the CCC remains the only government conservation program that worked to save our country's environment on a national scale. There were CCC camps located in every state in the U.S.

The CCC was disbanded by President Roosevelt in 1942 when the nation's resources focused on the war effort and the economic state of the nation significantly improved. Originally, the program was designed to create jobs for unemployed young men during the depression. The onset of World War II meant an abundance of jobs all over the country, which rendered the original purpose of the CCC irrelevant. The CCC left behind a legacy that would be felt for years to come through the improvement of the country's forests and environment, as well as the hard work the young men performed through their enlistment with the CCC. Since then, several states, including California, have created their own Conservation Corps programs. Similar to the Civilian Conservation Corps, the California Conservation Corps allows young men and women to work for a year for the National Park System. The Civilian Conservation Corps Alumni Association continues working for historical recognition and education of the mass achievements of CCC workers and their families.