The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a voluntary public work relief program that ran from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18 to 25, eventually expanded to ages 17 to 28. Considered by many to be one of the most successful of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal programs, the CCC planted more than three billion trees and constructed trails and shelters in more than 800 parks nationwide during its nine years of existence. The CCC helped shape the modern national and state park systems. President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the Civilian Conservation Corps with an executive order on April 5, 1933. The CCC was part of his New Deal legislation, combating high unemployment during the Great Depression by putting hundreds of thousands of young men to work on environmental conservation projects. Men enlisted for a minimum of six months. Each worker received $30 in payment per month for his services in addition to room and board at a work camp. The men were required to send $22 to $25 of their monthly earnings home to support their families. Some corpsmen received supplemental basic and vocational education while they served. An estimated 57,000 illiterate men learned to read and write in CCC camps. The CCC enrolled Native Americans and Black Americans; however, enrollees lived and worked in separate camps as racial segregation was not yet deemed discrimination by the U.S. Supreme Court.