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This series includes correspondence files relating to the administration, management, conservation and development of Crown lands and natural resources. Series 1: early chronological series (files created, 1877-1911). Series 2: 1912 series (files created, 1912-1917). Includes correspondence, memoranda, reports, plans, 1877-1980.

The series consists of the business records, 1877-1977, of the office of the Kamloops Government Agent, including the records of several additional positions usually held by the same individual: Gold Commissioner, Mining Recorder, and Land Commissioner for the Kamloops Land District. The series also includes records of the Canadian Department of the Interior; most created and received by the Dominion Lands Agent at Kamloops as part of the administration of the Railway Belt.

Record types and subject matter include, but are not limited to the following: land alienation through pre-emption or purchase from the provincial government and homesteading or purchase from the federal government; a variety of leases of Crown land; other more general types of records; and records regarding Indigenous peoples and Indian Reserves.

Records related to land alienation include: applications for pre-emption records; land classification reports; forms completed by land inspectors of the Department of Lands Inspection Branch; declarations of occupation and permanent improvement on pre-emption claims; applications for homestead entry, cancellation, and abandonment; homestead Inspector’s reports; affidavits in support of an Application for Entry for a homestead, pre-emption or purchased homestead; land sales records including applications to purchase and certificates of purchase.

Records related to a variety of leases and other uses of Crown lands include: grazing leases; foreshore leases; dredging leases; indentures to reassign leases; special use permits; timber permits; water records including conditional water licenses, and permanent water licenses; applications for irrigation schemes; petroleum and natural gas leases; quarry leases; bar leases; coal leases; mining leases regarding surface and subsurface rights; applications for lease of crown-granted mineral claims; applications for placer leases under the Placer-Mining Act; and the lapse of a lease or forfeiture of a mineral claim to the Crown.

Other more general types of records include: correspondence regarding Crown grants; inquiries about land availability; surveyor’s reports; preliminary plans and correspondence for the surveys of townships; Soldier Settlement Board records including forms, correspondence and records of soldier land grants; attestation papers and discharge certificates; naturalization papers; personal correspondence; correspondence files on specific topics such as hay permit regulations or precipitation measurements; records regarding taxes; and business records of the office, including inter-department correspondence, circulars, and memorandum related to matters of land administration.

Files also exist for specific Indian Reserves, and can include correspondence; water records; surveys; and inspection reports created in the process of allotting new, and canceling existing Indian Reserves. Some files document instances of overlapping land use and conflict between settlers and Indigenous peoples on specific parcels of land.

Files are generally either correspondence files on a particular subject, or a variety of records related to a particular piece of land. Many files cover a wide time period and may be associated with multiple individuals or companies as land rights were often transferred to others or cancelled and reapplied for. Only the name of the first and last individual listed on the file is included in the file list. This means there may be additional names associated with files not included on the file list. The file list may also only include part of the legal description of land in cases where the description was exceptionally long, or included many different pieces of land. Single individuals may also have multiple files for each piece of land they are associated with.

Cartographic materials, consisting of blueprints and hand-drawn maps or plans, indicating the parcels of land relevant to the file, are commonly found throughout the records.

No file list or indexes were transferred with these records from the Kamloops Government Agent. Most files only included numbers with no clear names, so titles were created by the archives based on the contents of the files or by transcribing information on relevant file backs.

A fire on 17 September 1893 at the Dominion Lands Office in Kamloops destroyed some files. The contents for these files are marked [empty]. Files marked as [file back only] were likely destroyed in the fire, but then had their titles and some additional information transcribed by Lands employees onto file backs from letter books or other surviving records which were not transferred with these records.

This series consists of a variety of operational and land use records from the Prince George Forest Region, created from 1954-2010. Some records may have been created by its predecessor, the Prince George Forest District, and its successor, the Northern Interior Forest Region.

The Prince George Forest Region consisted of several smaller forest districts. Records created in the Prince George Forest Region may relate to the following Forest Districts: Fort St. James, Vanderhoof, Mackenzie, Robson Valley, Fort St. John, Dawson Creek, Prince George and Peace. Records may also relate to the nearby Kamloops Forest District.

This series includes a wide variety of records and subjects. Records primarily relate to forest administration and resource management. The following types of records are included in this series:

Facility and trail management files relate to the routine maintenance, rehabilitation and development of Forest Service recreation sites and trails, such as the Alexander Mackenzie Heritage Trail (AMHT). This includes records relating to the planning, designation, assessment, evaluation, design and construction of recreation sites and trails.

Resource management files include protected areas strategy submissions and proposals relating to the identification, evaluation and management of protected areas within the Province of British Columbia. Resource management inventories relate to identifying opportunities for recreation features, caves, and recreation opportunity spectrum (ROS) inventories. There are also resource management planning records for recreation corridor plans (rivers and trails) and other wilderness management records.

Resource planning files include local resource use plans (LRUP) and timber supply area (TSA) files.

Access plans relate to access or transportation investigations, and studies concerning the proposed development of forestry roads and bridges. This includes clearance approvals to determine any conflicts with alienated land for proposed construction, and meeting minutes with stakeholders for project consultation.

Road permit files may relate to the application and amendment of permits, as well as the construction, use and maintenance of forest service roads (FSRs) and other roads related to forestry on Crown land. Records include road permits, road use permits, vehicle permits, correspondence, maps, records related to road right-of-ways, clearances, and inspections. Permits give the right of way to build, modify and use a road on that right of way. Road use permits allow the operation of vehicles on a Forest Service Road. Roads include Finlay and Parsnip Forest Service Roads. Some files also relate to damages to roads.

District program evaluation files relate to the development of program management plans and reviews of operational program accomplishments at the district level. This includes draft and approved five year program management plans and associated updates, reports and correspondence for programs within district offices. Files regard topics such as timber harvesting audits, five year silviculture plans and the Small Business Forest Enterprise Program.

There are also records filed under additional ORCS numbers, including files on: community watershed guidelines; Prince George community forest proposal; Forests of the World Commission; special use permits for gravel pits; timber harvesting Appeal Board records; a sawmill site; range seeding; as well as procedures for Visual resource management, visual landscape inventory, timber marks, fire management and fire prevention. The series also includes a few replaceable forest license files and timber sale licence files and annual reports for the Prince George East Forest District.

Records may include correspondence, licences, permits, reports, forms, management plans, developments plans, inspections, evaluations, maps, sketches, photos, proposals, studies and financial records.

Records are covered by ORCS 10765-20, 11050-20, 11200-08, 11250-20, 11400-25, 12210-30, 12450-20, 12380-25, 12380-30, 12600-20, 12600-60, 12605-20, 15420-08, 15420-02, 16210-02, 16225-02, 16250-02, 16290-02, 16300-40, 16350-20, 16350-30, 16350-60, 16400-50, 16660-20, 16800-20, 19020-40, 19200-02, 19500-25, 19550-20, 19570-25, 19600-55 and 19600-60 of the Forest ORCS (schedule 881261).

The ministries responsible for the Forest Districts, and the years that they were responsible, are:

British Columbia. Dept. of Lands and Forests (1945-1962)
British Columbia. Dept. of Lands, Forests and Water Resources (1962-1975)
British Columbia. Dept. of Forests (1975-1976)
British Columbia. Ministry of Forests (1976-1986)
British Columbia. Ministry of Forests and Lands (1986-1988)
British Columbia. Ministry of Forests (1988-2005)
British Columbia. Ministry of Forests and Range (2005-2010)

The series consists of general files relating to public sustained yield units. The files were used to calculate the long term sustainable yield in the forests. These records were created between 1955 and 1980 by the Ministry of Forests and its successors. The records were maintained by the Victoria central office in Victoria and relate to all areas of the province.

Public sustained yield units (PSYU) were used by the ministry between 1948 and 1978. They were the method by which the ministry regulated harvest rates. PSYUs were an outgrowth of the 1945 Royal Commission on the Forest Resources of British Columbia. This commission recommended that the ministry should establish forest management units to ensure the long term sustained yield of timber.

The ministry established 88 public sustained yield units in the province and these are reflected in the records of this series. In 1978, the ministry replaced the system of public sustained yield units with timber supply areas. The 88 PSYU’s were reduced to 33 timber supply areas.

Records consist primarily of reports and maps as well as correspondence among ministry staff. The records were used to calculate yield volumes and therefore contain documents used for that purpose including yield calculation reports, forest inventory summaries, mill surveys and statistics, and information about allowable cuts.

Files are arranged alphabetically. There is a file for each of the PSYUs in the province. Each file has been assigned a classification number that begins with the numbers 700-6-1. This classification number was first assigned to the records ca. 1979. Documents in each file that were created prior to 1979 have been assigned a “0” number. The “0” numbers are 7 digit numbers that are part of a filing system that was created by the Dept. of Lands which was a predecessor of Forests.

Ministries responsible for creating these records, and the dates that they were responsible, include:
British Columbia. Dept. of Lands and Forests (1955-1962)
British Columbia. Dept. of Lands, Forests and Water Resources (1962-1975)
British Columbia. Dept. of Forests (1975-1976)
British Columbia. Ministry of Forests (1976-1980)

The series consists of policy files relating to public sustained yield units. These records were created between 1955 and 1985 by the Ministry of Forests and its predecessors. The records were created by the ministry’s central office in Victoria and relate to all areas of the province. These files were used for planning in public sustained yield unit areas.

Public sustained yield units (PSYU) were used by the ministry between 1948 and 1978. They were the method by which the ministry regulated harvest rates. PSYUs were an outgrowth of the 1945 Royal Commission on the Forest Resources of British Columbia. This commission recommended that the ministry should establish forest management units to ensure the long term sustained yield of timber.

The ministry established 88 public sustained yield units in the province and these are reflected in the records of this series. In 1978, the ministry replaced the system of public sustained yield units with timber supply areas. The 88 PSYU’s were reduced to 33 timber supply areas.

Records contain correspondence, maps and reports. The correspondence is with ministry staff, other ministries and third parties including businesses and individuals. The majority of the documents relate to forest use but there are also records that relate to other land use information including mining, recreation, parks, and environment. The reports include computer printouts and written reports. The computer printouts contain information about forestry yield.

Files are arranged alphabetically. There is a file for each of the PSYUs in the province. Each file has also been assigned a classification number that begins with the numbers 700-6-1. This classification number was first assigned to the records ca. 1979. Documents in each file that were created prior to 1979 have been assigned a “0” number. The “0” numbers are 7 digit numbers that are part of a filing system that was created by the Dept. of Lands which was a predecessor of Forests.

Ministries responsible for creating these records, and the dates that they were responsible, include:
British Columbia. Dept. of Lands and Forests (1955-1962)
British Columbia. Dept. of Lands, Forests and Water Resources (1962-1975)
British Columbia. Dept. of Forests (1975-1976)
British Columbia. Ministry of Forests (1976-1985)

The series consists of management files relating to public sustained yield units. These files document day to day operations and were used for implementing and managing yield policies throughout the province. These records were created between 1956 and 1984 by the Ministry of Forests and its successors. The records were created by the ministry’s central office in Victoria and relate to all areas of the province.

Public sustained yield units (PSYU) were used by the ministry between 1948 and 1978. They were a method by which the ministry regulated harvest rate. PSYUs were an outgrowth of the Royal Commission on the Forest Resources of British Columbia of 1945. This commission recommended that the ministry should establish forest management units that would be managed for a long term sustained yield of timber.

The ministry established 88 public sustained yield units in the province and these are reflected in the records of this series. In 1978, the ministry replaced public sustained yield units with timber supply areas. The 88 PSYU’s were reduced into 33 timber supply areas.

Records contain correspondence, maps, and reports. The correspondence is with ministry staff, other ministries, other governments, businesses and members of the public. The correspondence includes letters about annual cutting rates including information about companies that exceed or do not meet their annual rates of harvesting. There are also requests from municipalities, members of the public and businesses for an increase in cutting quotas.

Files are arranged alphabetically. There is a file for each of the PSYUs in the province. Each file has also been assigned a classification number that begins with the numbers 700-6-1. This classification number was first assigned to the records ca. 1979. Documents in each file that were created prior to 1979 have been assigned a “0” number. The “0” numbers are 7 digit numbers that are part of a filing system that was created by the Dept. of Lands which was a predecessor of Forests.

Ministries responsible for creating these records, and the dates that they were responsible, include:
British Columbia. Dept. of Lands and Forests (1955-1962)
British Columbia. Dept. of Lands, Forests and Water Resources (1962-1975)
British Columbia. Dept. of Forests (1975-1976)
British Columbia. Ministry of Forests (1976-1984)

This series consists of resource management and other operational records from the Rocky Mountain Forest District for the years 1944-2005. This series may also include records created by the Cranbrook, Kootenay Lake and Invermere Forest Districts, as well as the Nelson and Southern Interior Forest Regions. Note that the names and boundaries of districts and regions varied over the years.

This series includes a wide variety of types of records and subjects. Each record type has been assigned an ORCS number of the Ministry of Forests records schedule (number 881261). The ORCS number is included at the beginning of each file code in the finding aid. These are the file numbers used by the creator. In order to search for a particular file type, try searching for all or part of the ORCS number in the file list.

The following types of records are included in this series:

Integrated resource planning guidelines. They include specific guidelines, and records used in their development, for particular geographic areas or watersheds. Records include photos, maps, aerial photos, lake classification information, lake characteristics and uses, lake management guidelines and correspondence. ORCS 12210-30.

Other resource management records relate to the development of Integrated Resource Use Plans which are designed to resolve resource use conflicts in specific areas at the local level. Includes records relating to data concerning a specific area - usually a watershed or other distinct resource management unit. Types of Local Integrated Resource Use Plans include: Local Resource Use Plans (LRUP) and Coordinated Resource Management Plans (CRMP), coordinated access management plans, and integrated watershed management plans. Files address issues such as the construction of infrastructure, land management and various kinds of land use in the areas, particularly managing grazing land. Records include maps, correspondence, range improvement records, range inspection reports, range management plans, meeting minutes, final plans, and the review of plans. Plans cover various areas in the Kootenay and Rocky Mountain area, including the Libby Dam. ORCS 12600-20, 12600-25, 12600-30, 12600-40, and 12600-60.

Forest planning public meeting files relate to public involvement in the process of planning for the future uses of Provincial Forest resources. ORCS 12080-20.

Range program management records relating to co-operation and liaison with other ministries in the BC Government and with the federal government; most regarding the 1977 agriculture and rural development subsidiary agreement. ORCS 15120-25 and 15120-55.

There are also files on a variety of miscellaneous topics, most of which only contain one or two files. These include: Forest Service projects with old trail improvement progress reports, damages to roads, district program management files, regional resource planning files, Integrated Watershed Management Plans (WMP), integrated weed plan, riparian guidelines recreation system plans, water survey of Canada, recreation maps, a forest planning study related to the Rocky Mountain trench, a research study on range use interactions between livestock and wildlife, information on guide outfitters, archaeological sites maps, and other local resource plans. ORCS 10740-50, 11200-08, 12090-20, 12210-30, 12380-25, 12380-30, 12430-20, 15380-03, 15600-06, 16350-40, 16400-20, 16660-20, 16700-05 and 17340-40.

The series also includes the following administrative records: approved legislation, ombudsman investigations related to range use complaints, and compliance and enforcement year end reports. Transferred under schedule 100001, ARCS numbers 00140-60, 00155-20 and 00400-02.

There are also policy and procedure files regarding a variety of additional topics and issues.

The ministries responsible for the Forest and Range Districts, and the years that they were responsible, are:
British Columbia. Dept. of Lands and Forests (1945-1962)
British Columbia. Dept. of Lands, Forests and Water (1962-1975)
British Columbia. Dept. of Forests (1975-1976)
British Columbia. Ministry of Forests (1976-1986)
British Columbia. Ministry of Forests and Lands (1986-1988)
British Columbia. Ministry of Forests (1988-2005)
British Columbia. Ministry of Forests and Range (2005-2010)

Series consists of special timber licences created by the Ministry of Forests and its predecessors. The ministry created these records to manage the process of providing applicants with the right to cut in forests. The records were created between 1911-1990 although the majority of the records in this series were created between 1963 and 1982. The records deal with all areas of the province and were created in accordance with the Forest Act and its sections on timber licences.

Special timber licences were first referred to in the 1888 Lands Act (SBC 1888, c. 16). The 1912 Forest Act (SBC 1912, c. 17) stated that a “special timber licence shall vest in the holder thereof all rights of property whatsoever in all trees, timber, and lumber cut within the limits of the licence during the term.” These licences remained in effect until the January 1, 1979 enactment of the new Forest Act (SBC 1978, c. 23). This 1978 act replaced special timber licences with a new form of timber licence.

The records are arranged by the timber licence number which begins with TL followed by a sequential number. The TL number was phased out in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s with the introduction of the timber licence files. Many files have the new timber licence number, which begins with “T”, written on the front of the file. There is also a sheet in the front of the file that contains information about the file that replaced it.

The files usually consist of a copy of the licence, renewal documentation, correspondence, logging inspection reports, and termination documents.

There are also two volumes of file 18043f from the Dept. of Lands and Works’ “O” files series. These files contain documentation about multiple licences. These have been placed in the last box.

Ministries that were responsible for this series include:
Dept. of Lands (1908-1945)
Dept. of Lands and Forests (1945-1962)
Dept. of Lands, Forests and Water Resources (1962-1975)
Dept. of Forests (1975-1976)
Ministry of Forests (1976-1986)
Ministry of Forests and Lands (1986-1988)
Ministry of Forests (1988-2005)