The National Parks: America’s Best Idea—A Film by Ken Burns—Part 5, “Great Nature” (1933-1945) by Ken Burns; PBSCall Number: Streaming media
Publication Date: 2009
In this episode, Franklin D. Roosevelt, to battle unemployment in the Great Depression, created the Civilian Conservation Corps, which spawned a “golden age” for the parks through major renovation projects. In a grodbreaking study, a young NPS biologist named George Melendez Wright discovered widespread abuses of animal habitats and pushed the service to reform its wildlife policies. Congress narrowly passed a bill to protect the Everglades in Florida as a national park—the first time a park had been created solely to preserve an ecosystem. As America became embroiled in World War II, Roosevelt was pressured to open the parks to mining, grazing, and lumbering.
