NJIT Professor Neil Maher will discusses the emergence of the urban park movement in the U.S. and the importance of Frederick Law Olmsted and Essex County’s Branch Brook Park in a free talk set for April 12, from 4-5:30 p.m. at the Cherry Blossom Visitors Center in Branch Brook Park.  >>

The Great Depression collided with a wave of natural disasters, including the Dust Bowl and devastating floods of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Recovering from these calamities—and preventing their reoccurrence—was a major goal of the New Deal. In Nature's New Deal: The Civilian Conservation Corps and the Roots of the American Environmental Movement (Oxford University Press, 2007), NJIT author and professor Neil M. Maher recounts the history of one of Franklin D. Roosevelt's boldest and most successful experiments, the Civilian Conservation Corps. >>