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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

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.