Presidents Day Green

This week's newspaper column: Read it in the Hattiesburg American.

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Given the hype, you might think Presidents Day was set aside for selling cars, socks, and iPods. Alas, no.

Originally celebrated as George Washington’s birthday on the 22nd of February, the third Monday in February has now been broadened to honor Abraham Lincoln, whose birthday is February 12th, and – loosely - every US president.

Looking back, and in keeping with the “green” theme of this column, who were our most environmental presidents?

Teddy Roosevelt is maybe the best known environmentalist having famously encouraged citizens to develop a greater appreciation of and respect for nature. Along with the establishment of the US Forest Service in 1905, some of the highlights of TR’s tenure included the preservation of 150 million acres of old-growth timberland, the creation of 50 wildlife refuges, and the establishment of 5 national parks. Teddy Roosevelt, for the first time in this country’s history, brought the idea of environmental stewardship into the national spotlight.

The Civilian Conservation Corps, created as part of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal, was responsible for planting over 3 billion trees across the United States as well as the construction of campgrounds, trails, and infrastructure in our national and state parks, many of which are still in use today. Under FDR’s administration, the Soil Conservation Service was established for the purpose of fostering long-term soil health and ending unsustainable farming practices that had led to widespread soil erosion leading up to the dust bowl days of the Great Depression.

Lyndon Johnson signed the Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1964 and set aside 9 million acres wilderness land, but he was overshadowed by his wife – Lady Bird Johnson – who tirelessly advocated for the protection of natural resources and the beautification of America up until her death in 2007.

You may be surprised to know that Richard Nixon was one of our country’s most prolific environmental presidents signing into law the Clean Air Act and establishing the Environmental Protection Agency. Additionally, Nixon’s presidency gave us the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the Toxic Substances Control Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, and the Endangered Species Act among other pieces of environmental legislation.

But Jimmy Carter sits atop all others in his advocacy for environmental causes. Along with overseeing a laundry list of environmental protections, Carter created the Department of Energy with the expressed goal of establishing a national energy policy that promoted clean and alternative fuels.

In what would turn out to be a major part of Carter’s undoing, he urged citizens to drive slower, conserve more, and begin a dramatic and comprehensive conversion to alternative energies. As an example for the country, he installed solar panels on the White House while donning a sweater and turning the thermostat down to 68 degrees.

If we as a country had followed his lead, the United States today would be a very different – and much more sustainable – place to live.

Where's Our Modern Day CCC?

This week's newspaper column. Read it in the Hattiesburg American.

Over the years, I, along with millions of fellow Americans, have enjoyed the fruits of an initiative born the better part of a century ago.

In 1933, the United States was mired in the midst of the Great Depression, and legions of Americans were unemployed and starving. As part of president Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal, the Civilian Conservation Corps came into being for the purpose of putting able-bodied men to work.

The Civilian Conservation Corps, better known as the CCC, went about constructing park facilities including campgrounds, vacation cabins, recreational trails, mountain lookouts, picnic areas, and a host of other amenities throughout the United States. CCC crews planted over 3 billion trees, took part in extensive erosion control projects, built roads, and erected fire towers. Much of that infrastructure still graces our national landscape.

(To see examples of a few CCC structures, go to my blog – the New American Village – at newamericanvillage.blogspot.com.)

CCC crews also pitched in as a ready national resource fighting fires throughout the country, and providing relief and rebuilding services after a major hurricane in New England, blizzards in Utah, and several major floods.

But far from being a “make-work” program, the men of the CCC were taught literacy and construction skills. Their hand-crafted park buildings of indigenous materials – a very green method of building - stand out today as some of the most beautiful structures in our park system, and the durability of their work is self-evident by virtue of the vast and diverse inventory of CCC facilities still in use today. As the depression waned, and jobs returned to the private sector, the men of the CCC were in great demand because they possessed practical, demonstrated trade skills, and as one employer put it, “they knew how to put in a good day’s work.”

The CCC was an immensely popular program. A Gallup poll in 1936 indicated that 82 percent of the general public was in favor of the program, including overwhelming majorities from both Democrat and Republican respondents.

With recent reports that one in eight Americans currently rely on food stamps for some or all of their food, and with millions unemployed or underemployed, where is our modern day Civilian Conservation Corps?

Look around you; there’s plenty of work to be done. Instead of us, as a society, doling out unemployment benefits, why not fashion a renewed version of this wildly successful employment and training program?

It has been popular group-think of late to say “government programs are never the answer.” But after a decade of political momentum on the side of demonizing the government and casting our economic fortunes solely with the private sector, why are so many people now suffering?

Knee-jerk platitudes and ideological clichés do not help build a country or put food on the table. The Civilian Conservation Corps, in fact, did just that.

CCC Revisited

As the Great Depression shook the economic foundation of the United States, president Franklin Delano Roosevelt initiated a federal stimulus program called the Civilian Conservation Corps better known as, simply, the CCC. The CCC gave unemployed men across the country the opportunity to join work camps building infrastructure in newly formed national and state parks, and much of the work those men created - now some 75 years later - stands as a testiment to the power of intelligently targeted federal jobs programs. Today, a bountiful tapestry of beautifully crafted cabins, hiking trails, and mountian lookouts grace the natural landscape of of America.

Now, with millions unemployed, and a recent report indicating that one in eight Americans are receiving food stamps for sustanance, why aren't we revisiting this amazing program. Rather than extend unemployment benefits and expand the food stamp program, why not build this country? And as in the 1930's, we can train a new generation of craftsmen.

Over the next few days, I'll be posting images of the wonderful work of the CCC starting with this little dandy - a lookout structure atop Mt. Petit Jean in the Ozark foothills of Arkansas.