Joe Biden wants to revive FDR’s Conservation Corps

LOOK EAST from the benches on top of Red Rocks Amphitheatre and Denver’s skyline is just visible in the distance. The venue, ringed by sandstone cliffs, is where many Coloradans saw their first concert and where fitness junkies gather for early-morning yoga. Less well known is the role the amphitheatre played in American history. It was built by President Franklin Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), a New Deal programme that put some 3m men to work building infrastructure and parks during the Great Depression. Now “Roosevelt’s Tree Army”, as the corps was called, may be getting a 21st-century makeover. President Joe Biden, who has not been coy about his admiration for FDR or his desire to emulate the New Deal, wants to fund a new version of the CCC aimed at tackling climate change and its effects.