Laycock wrote or edited 20 books, over 100 book chapters, and 350 articles in academic and popular journals. Many of these publications were devoted to environmental and Canadian history, including:
- *City and Suburb: The Political Fragmentation of Metropolitan Toronto, 1893–1924* (1970)
- *Concepts in Urban Planning* (1973)
- *Politics and Urban Growth: A Study of Metropolitan Toronto* (1974)
- *The Alien and the Aborigine: Three Centuries of Cultural Conflict in Canada* (1978)
- *Forest and Mines: Development and Devastation on the Labrador Peninsula, 1700–1970* (1980)
- *Legacy: The Historical Geography of Western Canada* (1981)
- *A Wilderness Called Home: A Personal and Historical Journey Across the Canadian North* (1992)
- *Britannia: The Life and Times of the British Columbia Forest Industry, 1871–1980* (1994)
- *Sacred Land: The Western Rockies, Banff–Jasper–Yoho National Parks* (1996)
- *The CPR and Western Landscapes* (1997)
- *The New Environmentalism: The Fighting Back* (1998)
- *The World Around Mount Robson* (2000)
- *The Salmon Chase: 15,000 Miles Around the Wild Pacific* (2002)
- *The Rocky Mountain National Parks of Canada: A History* (2004)
- *Nature's Fury, Nature's Grace: The Fraser River Year* (2006)
- *The Last Salmon: A Journey Through Fish, Rivers, and Memory* (2010)
- *Watershed: The Role of Water in the Development of Canadian Society* (with Don Macpherson) (2012)