The Massachusetts Dept. of Environmental Management (DEM) was established pursuant to St 1974, c 806 (effective July 1975), superseding the Dept. of Natural Resources, and including its Board of Natural Resources, renamed Board of Environmental Management per St 1975, c 706, s 36. The department provided general care and oversight of the natural resources of the Commonwealth and adjacent waters, developed policies for their management, and administered the parks and historic sites under its jurisdiction. The Board of Environmental Management established policies and approved programs to be implemented by the Dept. of Environmental Management. It consisted of five members until 1986, when it was increased to seven members, per St 1985, c 676, s 4. The department and its board were discontinued and their functions made part of the Dept. of Conservation and Recreation by St 2003, c 41. Series was created as a record of discussions and policy decisions made by the board. Topics include park development, land acquisition, litigation, proposed legislation, and personnel issues. Minutes range from the first monthly meeting of July 17, 1975 to July 31, 2002, with minutes from Aug. 2002-June 2003, as well as from some other periods, lacking. Background documents relating to meeting topics, 1977-2002, are filed in a separate sequence, and are not included in the digital version of the minutes.

As part of its function, the Wachusett Mountain State Reservation Commission (WMSRC) documented its commission meetings through minutes, consisting of this series. The initial volume includes minutes from the first meeting of Oct. 9, 1899 to Apr. 7, 1919, being a mixture of handwritten and typed documents, glued to pages. Minutes from Mar, 10, 1944 to the final meeting of Mar. 22, 1967 are unbound, with 1962-1963 minutes lacking. The commission consisted of a chairman and two associate members, one of whom was Harold Parker (1854-1916), who also served on the Massachusetts State Forest Commission (1914-1919) until his death. Minutes document the origins of the Wachusett Mountain ski area, which the WMSRC created in the early 1960s.