• The Great Depression
  • Hard Times
  • Government Responds
  • A New Deal
  • The Arts
  • Lasting Changes
    • Tennessee Valley Authority
    • Conserving the Land
    • National & State Parks
• World War II

Conserving the Land

By the 1930s, much of Tennessee’s land was in poor condition.  Over time, bad farming practices, cutting down trees, and other factors led to soil erosion.  

In 1935, the United States Department of Agriculture published a study of Tennessee’s land.  The study concluded that millions of acres of Tennessee land were damaged.  Some land was in such bad shape that it could not be used to grow crops anymore.

Several federal agencies helped to improve soil conservation in Tennessee as part of the New Deal .  The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) encouraged good farming practices through their work with farm families. 

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) also helped fight soil erosion.  They planted thousands of trees in places like Bradley County, Tennessee.  CCC workers also made ditches and dams to channel water and used techniques like terracing the land to preserve the soil. 

The Agricultural Adjustment Administration encouraged farming practices that would improve Tennessee soil.  This agency’s programs “paid farmers for cultivating soil-conserving crops and implementing soil-building practices, such as terracing fields and planting windbreaks .”

Read about one Tennessean’s memory of conservation programs.

• The Tennessee Valley Authority paid for test farms to be set up to show farmers how certain planting techniques and the use of fertilizer would produce better crops.  In this photograph, the area on the right was given phosphate and lime fertilizer while the left side received none.  Farmers could see an immediate difference.  Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library

• A photograph of a maple tree planted by a group of Civilian Conservation Corps workers in Winchester, Tennessee.  The photograph was taken by Otto Haslbauer in 1935.  Tennessee State Library and Archives.  Volunteer Voices, Digital Library, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

• Photograph of a group of Civilian Conservation Corps workers planting seedlings on a slope next to a highway.  When grown, the trees will keep the soil from being washed away during rain.  The photograph was taken by Otto Haslbauer in 1935.  Tennessee State Library and Archives.  Volunteer Voices, Digital Library, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

• Photograph identified as a Civilian Conservation Corps worker planting a locust root on the Natchez Trace project near Lexington, Tennessee.  Photographed by Carl Mydans in 1936.  Library of Congress

• Photograph of an erosion control project near Lexington, Tennessee.  Photographed by Carl Mydans in 1936.  Library of Congress