Cover Page MENU     Contents     Acknowledgements     Brief History of the CCC      NPS Role     NPS Camps     Contributions     Overall Accomplishments     Appendix     Bibliography		The Civilian Conservation Corps and the National Park Service, 1933-1942: An Administrative History Chapter Two: The National Park Service Role 1936 CONSOLIDATION PROGRAM By 1935 the NPS Branch of Planning under the direction of Conrad Wirth had established eight regional (district) offices to help in administering the state parks program. These offices oversaw and approved the work of the individual state offices, provided quality control on state projects, and were responsible for certain budgetary and personnel matters within their jurisdiction. At the same time, the ECW program within the national parks and monuments was administered by the NPS Branch of Forestry. This produced a duplication of functions and personnel by the two branches, requiring NPS Director Cammerer to discuss with the branch chiefs how best to eliminate the problem and more efficiently administer the ECW program. Since the ECW state parks program was the larger of the two, Director Cammerer, in consultation with Wirth and Coffman, decided to transfer the ECW national parks and monuments program from the Branch of Forestry to the Branch of Planning and State Cooperation. The effective date for the beginning consolidation was set for January 15, 1936; it was to be completed by June 1, 1936. [18] With the presidential decision to reduce the ECW program in scope and to curtail funds in the fall of 1935, NPS officials were forced to find ways to reduce its administrative costs. On January 26, 1936, a special committee composed of Washington officials and park superintendents met to explore ways to remedy the situation. The majority of the committee members did not want to regionalize the ECW program until the National Park Service itself was regionalized. (This Park Service reorganization had been discussed since the successful regionalization of the ECW state parks program in 1933.) Opposed to this view were Washington officials Conrad Wirth, Verne Chatelain, and Oliver G. Taylor, who advocated an immediate partial regionalization of the ECW national parks program. Wirth presented this minority view in a January 26, 1936, letter to NPS Director Cammerer, who, after studying the committee's report and the letter, decided to implement Wirth's proposals. Starting in May 1936 the national park superintendents continued to submit their ECW projects to the Washington office for approval, but all project inspection work and liaison duties with the Army became the responsibility of ECW state parks regional offices (as the national parks regions were not yet established). The second phase of this plan in the last half of 1936 was to consolidate the number of ECW regional offices from eight to four with each region having from two to five suboffices, which were known as districts. Each of the regions was assigned a complement of inspectors made up of engineers, landscape architects, foresters, wildlife experts, geologists, archeologists, and historians to maintain the quality of the work performed. Secretary of the Interior Ickes wanted to see all ECW work administration carried out by the NPS regional offices when they were established. [19] The reduction of the ECW program facilitated the speedy transfer of supervision of the national parks and monuments program from the Branch of Forestry to the Branch of Planning and State Cooperation. By February 1936 the Branch of Planning was placed in charge of all matters relating to the ECW camps, and the state parks inspectors were monitoring projects in national park and monument areas. [20] Also in early 1936, the procedure for ECW work was clarified. In state park areas, an ECW work application could start when a general management plan was completed and approved. Then the application would be written and submitted to state offices, and in turn to regional offices where technicians checked it over and the work would be classed as A, B, or C to indicate regional priority. This compiled list would then be sent to Washington where the Park Service director, upon recommendation by his staff, would give preliminary approval to the projects. The approved application would be sent back to the field where the park superintendent or state park official would be notified as to which projects had been approved and which camps could begin working on them. Detailed plans for projects, including estimated time, labor, and money necessary for completion, were then submitted to the Washington Office for final approval. Once approved, funds were made available to begin contracting for materials, with all contract change orders over $300 being sent to Washington for approval. If the original funding estimate for a project proved inadequate, a supplemental funding application would be sent to Washington. Conrad Wirth had developed a "48-hour system" by which the original application and requests for additional allocations of money would be either approved, held in abeyance, or disapproved within 48 hours after reaching Washington. The field officers were notified of the decisions. The "48-hour system" applied only to state park projects and had been used experimentally in 1935. Between 1935 and 1936 over 90 percent of the applications were processed within the prescribed time limit, and few complaints were received concerning the procedure. [21] NEXT> Impact Upon NPS Regionalization
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