A collection of over 2.2 million aerial photos of B.C. will be available for public viewing and research, thanks to a new partnership between the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations and the University of British Columbia's department of geography.

The aerial photos date back to 1936 and represent a unique visual history of the province, its resources and its development over the past eight decades. Many images from 1962 onward already are freely available as digital files and any photo from the full history of the program can be ordered online through a scan-on-demand service offered by GeoBC.

The photos had been in storage since the Provincial Air Photo Warehouse closed in early 2010. They now have been transferred and are on permanent loan to UBC's Geographic Information Centre. Over the next few months, they will be catalogued and shelved, and should be publicly accessible by September 2013.

Researchers, engineers, biologists, geologists, community planners and other professionals working in industries such as forestry, mining and development can borrow hard copies of the aerial photos for up to a week at a time. Students and other academics (along with members of the public) are invited to view them at the Geographic Information Centre, where they will have access to mirror stereoscopes to view pairs of similar images to see a 3-D representation of that specific landscape.

This unique collection of photos has significant value related to a range of social, cultural, environmental, historic and economic interests. It is - quite literally - an irreplaceable historic treasure for British Columbia.

Anyone who finds a photo of particular interest can purchase high-resolution digital scans from the original film negative. Digital copies of many photos in the collection are also available for purchase through the provincial government's Base Map Online Store at: www.geobc.gov.bc.ca

Quotes:

Minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations Steve Thomson -

"This remarkable collection of aerial photos is a unique record of change and development in the province since 1936. It's an invaluable resource and I'm pleased that our ministry and UBC are working together to make them accessible to researchers and other interested British Columbians."

Marwan Hassan, head of the University of British Columbia's department of geography -

"The study of geography is integral to the understanding of this province and its history. UBC's geographic information centre plays an important role in geographic scholarship in Canada and we are excited to make these images more readily available to researchers, our students and the general public."

Quick Facts:

• UBC's Geographic Information Centre is located in the south wing of the Geography Building, in Room 112: http://www.maps.ubc.ca/PROD/index_detail.php?bldg1ID=401&showMapCampus=y

• GeoBC is an important component of the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations' Integrated Resource Operations Division. The agency creates and manages a wide variety of geospatial information and products, including base maps, imagery, spatial data (e.g., road locations, hydrology, terrain) and information related to natural resources and environmental stewardship in B.C.

• GeoBC provides consultation services to resource professionals, academics, researchers, businesses, First Nations, members of the general public, and a range of government departments and agencies throughout Canada.

• GeoBC maintains an archive of all the original film for this aerial photography to ensure that it remains available to British Columbians for years to come.

• Black-and-white aerial photographs are available for all regions of British Columbia at a variety of scales, with photos of some areas dating back more than 75 years. Colour aerial photographs are becoming increasingly available for many areas of the province, particularly the Okanagan, Kootenay and Cariboo regions.

Learn More:

GeoBC: http://geobc.gov.bc.ca/index.html

GeoBC's digital imagery: http://geobc.gov.bc.ca/Imagery.html

UBC Geographic Information Centre: http://www.geog.ubc.ca/resources/gic/index.html

UBC department of geography: http://www.geog.ubc.ca

Media contact:

Media Relations
Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations
250 356-5261