This collection consists primarily of personal journals, as well as manuscripts, booklets, correspondence, and articles documenting the environmental community outreach activities and personal reflections of author and environmentalist Paul Relis of Santa Barbara, California.

Paul Relis got his start in the environmental movement in the wake of the Santa Barbara oil spill in 1969, while an undergraduate in English at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). In the aftermath of the spill, public interest and activism spurred the founding of several groups whose purpose was solely to protect the environment. Relis became the first executive director of one of these groups, the Community Environmental Council (CEC), when he was 23, working closely with Marc McGinnes, who would also become an important figure in the West Coast environmentalist movement. The CEC focused on ideas to help the environment, establishing several public gardens experimenting in organic horticulture, as well as solar power, large scale composting, and biogas. Relis spearheaded grassroots efforts to start recycling programs, Santa Barbara Earth Day, and community gardens in the early 1970s. Relis is currently Senior Vice President of CR & R Incorporated, an environmental services company focusing on providing recycling and waste services. Relis has also served as a lecturer at UCSB.

2.92 linear feet (7 document boxes)

Copyright has not been assigned to the Department of Special Research Collections, UCSB. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Research Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Department of Special Research Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which also must be obtained.

The collection is open for research.