BC Historical Federation Vice-President Mark Forsythe caught up with the 2019 Lieutenant-Governor’s Medal for Historical Writing prize winning author Michael Layland to discuss his book “In Nature’s Realm: Early Naturalists Explore Vancouver Island” (Touchwood Editions, 2019).

A celebration of the richly diverse flora and fauna of Vancouver Island as explored through the records of explorers, settlers, and visitors, and with due respect to the wealth of Indigenous traditional knowledge of the island’s ecosystems. In Nature’s Realm gathers initial reports, recorded histories, and personal accounts left by Vancouver Island’s early naturalists who studied the region’s flora and fauna.