National Public Lands • Find Your Local Forest • Find Your State Forester • NPLD 2001

Related Resources • Civilian Conservation Corps History • CCC Alumni • About the USFS

Elsewhere on the Web • CCC/Park Service • CCC/Part of the New Deal • Depression Photos

National Public Lands Day is an event that occurs once a year when volunteers come together to improve public lands across the United States. Volunteers will get together this Saturday, September 29th to help improve public lands and also to celebrate a working group that has added significant value to the nation's forest resource.

The American taxpayer is encouraged to attend community events on or near their local National Forest to honor Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) alumni who worked from 1933 to 1942.  Many celebrations will show how these "volunteers" improved our forest environment with much dedication and some very hard work.

Known as "Roosevelt's Tree Army" and part of the New Deal, more than two million Americans -- mostly men --planted over three billion trees and spent countless hours fighting forest and coal fires. They also surveyed and mapped lands and lakes, wired whole towns, and built fences, lodges, museums, lookout towers, wells and pump houses. The numbers are impressive:

• The CCC built 46,854 bridges
• The CCC restored 3,980 historic structures
• The CCC developed 800 state parks (many states had no parks before the CCC)
• The CCC installed 5,000 miles of water supply lines

 But let us not forget the new volunteer who is also at work in our national forests and public lands.

Nearly 45,000 volunteers helped improve public lands in 277 sites across all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico last year. It is estimated that hard-working efforts combined with community contributions of food, tools, and equipment resulted in over $6.5 million of improvements and developments to public lands. 

National Public Lands Day is a unique public-private partnership involving many federal, state, and local land agencies. These agencies work closely with business partners such as Toyota, Outdoor Life Network, and numerous non-profit organizations. The National Environmental Education & Training Foundation manages, coordinates, and generates financial support for the program.