National historic sites commemorate important moments in the making of Canada. But seen through an environmental lens, these sites become artifacts of a bigger story: the occupation and transformation of nature into nation. As we confront critical questions of environmental sustainability, we need to know more about the history of our relationship with the natural world and what lessons this past can offer. What can historic sites - places of public history, regional identity, and national narrative - teach us about Canada's place in nature? Nature, Place, and Story scripts new interpretations for five of Canada's largest and most iconic historic sites (two of which are UNESCO World Heritage Sites): L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland; Grand Pre, Nova Scotia; Fort William, Ontario; the Forks of the Red River, Manitoba; and the Bar U Ranch, Alberta. At each site, environmental history speaks directly to contemporary questions about the health of our Canadian habitat. Rewriting our public history as environmental history reveals our debt to the power and fragility of the natural world, and the relevance of the past to understanding such current dilemmas as climate change, agricultural sustainability, wilderness protection, urban reclamation, and fossil fuel extraction. These are more than islands of history; from the medieval Atlantic to modern ranchlands, they are fragments of choices made over the past millennia. Bringing together public history, environmental history, and Canadian studies in an entirely new way, Nature, Place, and Story is a lively and ambitious call for a national conversation about our natural heritage.