The State of Fire

Obi Kaufmann is the author of The California Field Atlas (2017, #1 San Francisco Chronicle Best Seller), The State of Water (2019), The Forests of California (2020), The Coasts of California (2022), and The Deserts of California (2023), all published by Heyday. When he is not backpacking, you can find the painter-poet at home in the East Bay, posting trail paintings at his handle @coyotethunder on Instagram. His speaking tour dates are available at californiafieldatlas.com, and his essays are posted at coyoteandthunder.com. He lives in Oakland, CA.

Introduction




Searching for Nature in the Anthropocene: Spring in Whiskeytown
Map—Carr Fire and Whiskeytown National Recreation Area
Map—California Counties
Map—National Forests in California
Map—California's Major Watersheds

Part One: Fire History


Endemic/Indigenous Pyrosymbiosis: The evolution of fire in California
Pyrodiversity and Biodiversity: Resiliency and postfire ecological response
A Tragedy of Misconceptions: When the wilderness is not wild
Cultural Fire on the Land: Traditional ecological knowledge
Colonial Conflagration: Genocide and ecocide
The Coming of Modern Megafire: Why and how now is different
The Century of Reset and Reckoning: California fire in the twenty-first century
Map—North Coast and Klamath Regions
Map—Bay Area and Sonoma-Berryessa Regions
Map—Central Coast Region
Map—Santa Barbara Coast and Mountain Region
Map—South Coast Region with Transverse and Peninsula Ranges
Map—California's Southeastern Deserts
Map—Southern Sierra Nevada
Map—Northern Sierra Nevada
Map—Northeast Region and Cascade Ranges

Part Two: Fire Ecology


Cascading Patterns and Emergence: The (new) ecology of fire
Succession and conversion: Fire's ecological energy release
Patterns of vulnerability and resilience: Bioregional Fire Ecology
—North Coast and North Coast Ranges Bioregion
—Klamath Mountain Bioregion
—Southern Cascades Bioregion
—Northeastern Plateaus Bioregion
—Sierra Nevada Bioregion

—Central Valley Bioregion

—South Coast Bioregion

—Southern Eastern Deserts Bioregion
Abundance and variation: How fire affects animals
Dependency and enhancement: How fire affects plants

Part Three: Fire Principles


World on Fire: California climate breakdown by the numbers
Fire Is the Hunter: Human culpability, fire threat, and fire design
A Policy of Prescription: Opportunities and challenges in normalizing wildland fire
Repair, Restore, and Reciprocate: A vision of California in the balance
Between Tradition and Innovation: A better story for fire




Acknowledgments
Notes
Selected Bibliography
About the Author