An integral part of FDR's New Deal was the Civilian Conservation Corps, which focused on environmental conservation work.
[Niel M.] Maher writes that President Franklin Roosevelt pitched the Corps mostly as a jobs program. “The overwhelming majority of unemployed Americans, who are now walking the streets and receiving private or public relief, would infinitely prefer to work,” he told Congress.
The program was open only to unemployed, single men between ages eighteen and twenty-five (with the vast majority of the jobs going to white men). Because most workers in the program had no prior experience in conservation work—and often little to no work experience at all—the Corps took on projects that only required unskilled labor.
(Maher’s book came out in 2009, if you want a long read on the topic)
