Editing Franklin D. Roosevelt (section)

====Conservation and the environment====

Roosevelt had a lifelong interest in the environment and conservation starting with his youthful interest in forestry on his family estate. Although he was never an outdoorsman or sportsman on Theodore Roosevelt's scale, his growth of the national systems was comparable.{{Sfn|Dallek|2017|p=19}}<ref>See also Edgar B. Nixon, ed. ''Franklin D. Roosevelt and Conservation, 1911-1945'' (2 vol. 1957); [https://archive.org/details/franklindrooseve0000nixo/page/n7/mode/2up vol 1 online]; also see [https://archive.org/details/franklindrooseve0002unse_p5t9/page/n6/mode/1up vol 2 online]</ref> When Franklin was Governor of New York, the Temporary Emergency Relief Administration was essentially a state-level predecessor of the federal Civilian Conservation Corps, with 10,000 or more men building [[fire trail]]s, combating [[soil erosion]] and planting tree seedlings in marginal farmland in New York.<ref>{{Cite web|title=FDR's Conservation Legacy (U.S. National Park Service)|url=https://www.nps.gov/articles/fdr-s-conservation-legacy.htm|access-date=June 28, 2021|website=nps.gov}}</ref> As President, Roosevelt was active in expanding, funding, and promoting the [[United States National Park|National Park]] and [[United States National Forest|National Forest]] systems.<ref name=":0">{{cite book|last=Leshy|first=John|editor1-last=Woolner|editor1-first=David|editor2-last=Henderson|editor2-first=Henry L.|title=FDR and the Environment|publisher=Springer|date=2009|chapter=FDR's Expansion of Our National Patrimony: A Model for Leadership|pages= 177–78|isbn=978-0-230-10067-1}}</ref> Their popularity soared, from three million visitors a year at the start of the decade to 15.5&nbsp;million in 1939.<ref name="America's Idea">{{cite web|title=The National Parks: America's Best Idea: History Episode 5: 1933–1945|url=https://www.pbs.org/nationalparks/history/ep5|publisher=PBS|access-date=April 23, 2016}}</ref> The [[Civilian Conservation Corps]] enrolled 3.4&nbsp;million young men and built {{convert|13,000|mi|km|abbr=off|sp=us}} of trails, planted two billion trees, and upgraded {{convert|125,000|mi|km|abbr=off|sp=us}} of dirt roads. Every state had its own state parks, and Roosevelt made sure that WPA and CCC projects were set up to upgrade them as well as the national systems.{{sfn|Brinkley|2016|pp=170–86}}<ref>{{cite journal|first=Neil M.|last=Maher|title=A New Deal Body Politic: Landscape, Labor, and the Civilian Conservation Corps|journal=[[Environmental History]]|volume=7|issue=3|pages=435–61|date=July 2002|jstor=3985917|url=http://environmentalhistory.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/7-3_Maher.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160602073403/http://environmentalhistory.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/7-3_Maher.pdf |archive-date=June 2, 2016 |url-status=live|doi=10.2307/3985917|bibcode=2002EnvH....7..435M |s2cid=144800756}}</ref><ref>Anna L.  Riesch Owen, ''Conservation Under FDR'' (Praeger, 1983).</ref>