Cover Page MENU     Contents     Acknowledgements     Brief History of the CCC     National Park Service Role     NPS Camps      Contributions     Overall Accomplishments     Appendix     Bibliography		The Civilian Conservation Corps and the National Park Service, 1933-1942: An Administrative History Chapter Four: Contributions INSECT AND FUNGUS CONTROL The year before the enactment of the ECW legislation in 1933, Director Albright had asked the House of Representatives Appropriations Committee for emergency funding of up to $5 million for a five-year program to combat various species of pine beetles in Yellowstone, Yosemite, Sequoia, and other western parks, which threatened the destruction of the various pines. He felt that even this measure might not be sufficient to save the trees. Another menace to the forests in the western parks was the white-pine blister rust coming into the United States from Canada. [10] Infestations of mountain pine and bark beetles were brought under control by ECW workers at Sequoia National Park, Crater Lake National Monument, and portions of Yosemite National Park in 1933. At Yosemite, however, the superintendent opposed the Ribes eradication program as a means of controlling white-pine blister rust. He believed that the removal of currant and gooseberry bushes might eventually do more harm than good to the park's ecosystem, and he wanted research conducted on the interrelationship between these shrubs and other plants and wildlife in the forest. In other parks, the Ribes eradication program continued as the major way to halt the spread of blister rust. [11] During 1936 a specially authorized tree-preservation crew was established to travel in eastern historical and military parks, monuments, and cemeteries doing pruning, spraying, feeding, and other conservation work. The NPS officials had the ECW enrollees carry out the bulk of insect control projects because no other funds had been appropriated for insect control since the program began. At Morristown National Historical Park, the Park Service instituted an experiment where an autogiro was used to spray trees with insecticide in forested areas. Due to lack of sufficient funding, the itinerant tree preservation crew that had worked throughout the eastern states was discontinued in 1937. [12] In 1939 the blister rust control program was reduced due to lack of CCC funds, despite the fact that after six years of effort on both the east and west coasts the pine forests of the national parks remained threatened by the disease. Park Service Director Cammerer stated that he still considered blister rust disease the second greatest forest protection problem. [13] NEXT> Resource Conservation vs. Park Development
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