Times Observer file photo As the years pass, fewer and fewer men who served in the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression are here to tell us about it. But the local reunion for the CCC, held annually at the WCVB in Starbrick, continues. The 17th annual event will be held Friday, Aug. 16 at 10 a.m.

We’re surrounded by the work of the Civilian Conservation Corps.

From state parks to roads to trees, that work will be celebrated in Starbrick on Aug. 16.

The 17th annual CCC reunion is set for that date at 10 a.m. at the Warren County Visitors Bureau.

“This year’s ceremony is dedicated to the recent passing of CCC historian Dr. Michael Schultz,” Walt Atwood with the Tionesta Valley Snowmobile Club, which coordinates the event, said. “A special presentation will be given in Mike Schultz’s honor.

“Dr. Schultz was the author of several books and videos about the CCC nationally and also focusing on the activities of the CCC in the Allegheny National Forest region,” Atwood added.

Speakers at this year’s event will include Amanda Glaz with the Forest Service and Cecile Stelter, district forest manager for the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

The CCC, which was active from 1933 to 1942, was a program of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal intended to provide unskilled conservation related jobs to young men and help families struggling to find work in the Great Depression.

According to the Library of Congress, three million young men served in the CCC and “virtually changed the landscape of the United States through conservation projects on millions of acres of lands, and through the expansion and development of the nation’s state and national parks and forests.” The most visible vestiges of that work today include the three billion trees planted and 711 state parks created.

When the local reunions started, the veterans themselves would attend. Those numbers have dwindled and now family members of those men make up the attendance at the reunion.

The statue at the visitors center in Starbrick is one of seven in Pennsylvania. It was dedicated in 2007.

Warren County’s only CCC camp – located at Bull Hill – was constructed in 1935 and opened in June of that year. Once the camp closed and the CCC shut down, the Bull Hill Camp was used as a POW camp where 200 German prisoners were guarded by 14 military policemen.