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This series consists of records created by the Ministry of the Environment, the Department of Environment and their predecessors departments, such as the Department of Lands, Forests and Water Resources. The majority of the records were created from 1970-1977.

Records relate to department administration, organization charts, reorganization, pollution control, water resources services and the agricultural land reserve.

The records relate to all functions of the Department of Environment. This includes, but is not limited to, the creation and management of the Department of the Environment; managing protected areas; hunting; trapping and traplines; guide outfitters; fishing; Indigenous hunting and land rights; wildlife management, including wolf control; game farming; fish farms and aquaculture; water rights and management; Ministry centralization and reorganization; the establishment of the Environmental Lab; conservation and habitat management; water rights and water licences; flood prevention and mitigation; the creation and management of dams and dykes; land use; pollution, including air, chemical, solid waste and sewage; waste management, including landfills and sewage systems; coal mining; pesticides and herbicides; conservation officers, including enforcement and prosecutions; the drafting of legislation and orders-in-council; flood claims, control and prevention; and surveys and mapping.

Records include correspondence from the public and within government, briefing notes, meeting minutes, minister's speeches, Cabinet submissions, Treasury Board submissions, reports, agreements, legislation, agreements, policies, procedures, maps and photos.

The records were created by the following executive:

Ray Gillis Williston, Minister of Lands, Forests and Water Resources, 1962-1972
Robert Arthur Williams, Minister of Lands, Forests and Water Resources, 1972-1975
James Arthur Nielson, Minister of Environment, 1975-1978
Kenneth Rafe Mair, Minister, 1978-1979
Charles Stephen Rogers, Minister, 1979-1983

Ben E Marr, Assistant Deputy Minister (ADM), Water Resources, 1973-1975
Ben E Marr, Deputy Minister, 1974-1987
Allan Murray, ADM Conservation, 1978-1979
V Raudsepp, DM, Water Resources, 1970-1973
GE Simmons, ADM, Water Resources, 1975
GE Simmons, ADM, Water and Air, 1976
GE Simmons, ADM, Environmental and Engineering, 1977-1978
GE Simmons, ADM, Environmental Management, 1979-1981
WN Venables, ADM Environmental Protection, 1979
Ed H Vernon, ADM, Conservation, 1974-1978

This series consists of waste management files for areas across the province from 1948-1981. The records were created by the Pollution Control Branch of the Ministry of Environment, and its predecessors. They document the management of waste outside the waste management permit system, but still under the authority of the Waste Management Act (SBC 1982 c. 41).

Waste management can involve the disposal or mitigation of: water pollution, assessing water quality, sewage, waste from slaughterhouses and canneries, garbage and other solid waste, heavy metals, oil, agricultural or manure, and other industrial discharges.

Topics addressed in the files include: major federal-provincial or international activities or issues related to large areas such as an entire watershed; assessments of the environmental health of certain areas of the province through various tests, sampling, inspections and surveys; liaison with other waste management authorities in the province, such as municipalities and other levels of government; correspondence with individuals or groups making complaints or voicing concerns over environmental issues and waste disposal; and correspondence with potential permittees prior to application of a waste management permit.

Records include correspondence, memoranda, water quality reports, studies, statistical data, agreements, newspaper clippings, photos and maps.

Some of the larger files regard places such as: Columbia River basin, Buttle Lake, Fraser River, Kamloops, Kelowna, Libby Dam, Naramata, Okanagan Basin, Thompson River, Trail Cominco Mine, Victoria, and the Greater Vancouver area. However, other files relate to other municipalities and bodies of water across the province.

The records are arranged alphabetically by area or place. Some files contain records related to multiple places beginning with a particular latter. For example, the 'Area “D”' file includes records on Deroche, Dawson Creek, Deadman Creek, etc.

This series consists of land management files from the Resource Analysis Branch (RAB) of the Ministry of Environment, 1976-1979. The RAB was responsible for environmental data collection and analysis and worked with other branches and ministries to provide data for their projects.

Many records relate to the identification, consultation, review and approval of official settlement plans for various regional districts, including correspondence, plans, and RAB procedures.

The majority of other files relate to project and program request forms received by RAB. Many are not approved, other are completed dead files. There are also files with all project requests for a given year. Records include maps, correspondence, reports and studies.

These records were transferred under one time schedule 871136.

The series contains a collection of maps used as reference in office of the Integrated Land Management Bureau and its predecessors from various ministries responsible for lands. These particular maps were transferred from the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands, Lower Mainland office in Surrey, B.C. The maps were produced by the surveys and mapping branch of the Ministry or its predecessors and cover a variety of areas in British Columbia.
The maps detail many features including roads, trails, railways, powerlines, reserved lands, surveyed lands, boundaries, campgrounds, mines, historic monuments, lighthouses, survey control stations, Forest Service lookouts, communications towers, customs offices, airports and airstrips, heliports, seaplane landings, buildings, elevations, dykes, contour swamp/marsh, intermittent lake/seasonal inundation, mud, sand, gravel, glaciers and icefields. Some maps also detail telephone lines, wells, falls, rapids, dams, cliffs, mile posts, orchards and even land lots.
The dates the maps were published do not necessarily coincide with when the data was collected to create those maps. Usually this information is present in the publication information at the bottom or top of each map. The maps would have held important reference information to Ministry workers and were probably consulted frequently. Several maps have annotations marking plots of land, new features, and other notes. Many of the maps are part of composites which can be placed next to each other to create larger maps. It is for this reason that it is believed that some duplications of the maps in this series exist. Most of the maps are topographical; however there are a few maps detailing lots and land registration as well as a few water source maps from the Water Management Division. Maps are printed on paper except for a few which are on Mylar. Maps do not appear to be arranged in any discernable order.

Maps of the following cities and areas are included in this series:
Alert Bay (1956, 1965, 1976)
Ashcroft (1966, 1975)
Boston Bar (1957)
Bowen Island
Bridge River (1970, 1979)
Bute Inlet (1960, 1970, 1991)
Buttle Lake (1977)
Campbell River (1981)
Cheakamus River (1969)
Chilliwack (1959)
Chilliwack Lake (1983, 1986, 1995)
Comox (1956)
Elko (1962)
Haslam Lake (1967)
Hope (1957, 1968)
Kamloops (1979,
Kamloops Lake (1979, 1995)
Kennedy Lake (1975)
Langley (1967, 1978, 1979)
Lardeau (1973)
Lillooet River (1979
Lytton (1968, 1979)
Manning Park (1960)
Merritt (1980)
Mount Urquhart (1955, 1960)
Mount Waddington (1968)
Nootka Sound (1960)
Pemberton (1951, 1972)
Pitt River (1973)
Port Alberni (1976)
Princeton (1980, 1995)
Revelstoke (1932)
Scuzzy Mountain (1956)
Shuswap Lake (1968)
Skagit (1960)
Spuzzum (1957, 1967)
Squamish (1952, 1972, 1982)
Sugar Lake (1956)
Texada Island (1950)
Toba Inlet (1979)
Tulameen (1958, 1978, 1986, 1995)
Vancouver (1959, 1975)
Victoria (1968)
Whistler (1993)
Yale (1966, 1976, 1979, 1995)

The series consists of records created by the first Minister of Environment, James Nielsen, between December 1975 and 1978. The records include Nielsen's Inter-ministerial correspondence, reading files and departmental files as well as news clippings and files relating to Water Resources, Pollution Control programs and the British Columbia Land Commission/Agricultural Land Commission. Many of the files have a numerical based classification system that range from 1.1 to 13.3 with gaps.

In addition, the series includes files of the subsequent Minister, Rafe Mair, from 1978. These files have their own alpha-numeric classification, G.1 to G.16 and appear to have been deliberately intermingled with Nielsen's files on the same subject. This often included material from Mair's previous ministry, Consumer and Corporate Affairs.

The files were moved from the Minister's office into boxes in a storage warehouse in a haphazard fashion with little account for file runs and chronological order. They have been left in that order.

This series consists of correspondence files relating to water management, water utilities, and water rights applications. Includes correspondence with Dewdney-Alouette Regional District, 1972-1978, and Minutes Of Dewdney-Alouette Technical Planning Committee, File 4987; Sunshine Coast Regional District, 1967-1978, File 3787; and Squamish-Lillooet Regional District, 1969-1976, regarding water supply.

This series consists of records of the Ministry of Environment (previously the Dept. of Lands, Forests and Water Resources), Power and Special Projects Division. Records include correspondence, feasibility studies, consultants' reports, engineering studies, application hearings, submissions, progress reports, contract drawings and tender documents regarding hydro-electric projects, water licenses, flood control, petroleum refinery pollution, sewerage treatment plants, fisheries and wildlife, and environmental impact, 1949-1976.

The collection largely contains materials relating to Arrow Lakes Dam, 1949, 1954-1969; the Jordan River redevelopment project, 1968-1972; the Babine Lake development (Fulton River dam), 1967-1970; the Columbia River Mica Dam project, 1954-1970; the Duncan Lake storage development, 1971-1973; the Kootenay canal development, and the Portage Mountain development (Peace River W.A.C. Bennett Dam), 1958-1967. It also includes hearings and submissions regarding the Iona Island sewage treatment plant, 1957-1959; records of Canada - B.C. Consultative Committee on the Okanagan basin agreement, 1970; B.C. Comptroller of Water Rights hearings regarding Nechako River, 1949; various B.C. Research Council reports, 1966-1973; and International Joint Commission (U.S. and Canada) hearings, 1955.

Boxes contains the following material:
Box 1 : Hydro-electric projects, miscellaneous reports and correspondence
Box 2: Tsitikia-Schoen Resource Study Hearings (Date: 1975)
Box 3: B.C. Hydro and Power Authority Reports, Mica, Arrow Lake, Duncan Lake Dams, 1965-1973; Recreation in Columbia River basin, 1961; Soil Convention Papers, 1964; Committee on International Hydro decade (Dates 1961, 1964-1973)
Box 4: Water License, Dam Applications, Hearings and Submissions (Dates 1949-1976)
Box 5: Fraser River (Dates 1957-1974)
Box 6: B.C. Research Council Reports (Dates 1966-1973)
Box 7: Okanagan Valley, Kettle Valley (Date 1975)
Box 8: Sewage Disposal, Iona Island (Dates 1957-1959)
Box 9: Wildlife and Fisheries (Dates 1965, 1969)
Box 10: Petroleum Refineries Pollution, Solid Waste Disposal
Box 11-13: Jordan River Redevelopment Project (Dates 1968-1972)
Box 14-28: Arrow Lake Dam (Dates 1958-1969)
Box 29-30: Babine Lake Development (Fulton River Dam) (Dates 1967-1970)
Box 31-39: Columbia -River Hydro-Electric Projects (Dates 1954-1966)
Box 40-45: Duncan Lake Storage Development (1961-1973)
Box 46-51: Kootenay Canal Development (Dates 67-1973)
Box 52-72: Portage Mountain development (W.A.C. Bennett Dam, Peace River) (Dates 1958-1968)
Box 73-86: Miscellaneous Contract Drawings and Tender Documents
Box 87: Additional Jordan River Redevelopment reports (Dates 1968-1969)
Box 88: Author and title catalogue cards

This series consists of records relating to the United Nations Water Conference, held 14-15 March 1977 at Mar del Plata, Argentina. The conference was attended by G.S. Simmons, Associate Deputy Minister of the Environment. British Columbia participated in the presentation of papers relating to flood damage control, river basin planning, marine resources and coastal water management. Records consist of correspondence, reports, briefing notes for Canadian delegation, and miscellaneous papers.