Publisher's Synopsis
- The counterpart to Obi Kaufmann's previous book from 2019, The State of Water: Understanding California's Most Precious Resource.
- Kaufmann's signature 'Atlas' approach and vision of California (told with watercolor maps and paintings) is focused onto one subject in a reference manual style, considering the future of conservation, history, fire behavior across the state, and much more.
- Obi Kaufmann's books are routinely on the San Francisco Chronicle bestseller list, and his high-quality and highly detailed books are beloved by book lovers and booksellers.
- As fires become a more common occurrence in California, more and more education and accessibility is needed on subjects relating to fires, especially conservation and regeneration, and The State of Fire offers a very engaging manual for all types of curious readers, novice and experienced scientists, and hikers.
- Understanding fire as a natural process is becoming more and more important, and The State of Fire strongly considers this "new" science of fire.
- This new understanding of fire, viewing it as a necessary and natural element of our world, is another way this book is set apart from other contemporary fire books.
- Three main sections: Fire History, Fire Ecology, and Fire Principles.
- The history section focuses on Indigenous fire-use and techniques, how things changed with colonial influence, how and why the contemporary "megafires" are different than older fires, and a breakdown by region of California fires in the twenty-first century.
- The ecology section zeroes in on how fire develops and affects specific environments in California, covering each of the state's diverse regions, from mountains to deserts.
- Perhaps more starkly than ever before in Kaufmann's collection of writings, what it means to observe, document, and conserve the nature around us-given the affects of human activity on the climate and environment and the intensity of this subject-is at its most urgent and necessary.
