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The Forests of California: A California Field Atlas
The first book of a major new trilogy from artist-naturalist Obi Kaufmann. "A call to action … full of beautiful watercolor renderings of both landscape and data."— Los Angeles Times From the author of The California Field Atlas (#1 San Francisco Chronicle Best Seller) comes a major work that not only guides readers through the Golden State’s forested lands, but also presents a profoundly original vision of nature in the twenty-first century. The Forests of California features an abundance of Obi Kaufmann’s signature watercolor maps and trail paintings, weaving them into an expansive and accessible exploration of the biodiversity that defines California in the global imagination. Expanding on the style of the Field Atlas , Kaufmann tells an epic story that spans millions of years, nearly one hundred species of trees, and an astonishing richness of ecosystems. The Forests of California is the first volume in a planned trilogy of field atlases, with The Coasts of California and The Deserts of California to follow, and Kaufmann seeks to create nothing less than a new understanding of the more-than-human world. The lessons in this book extend well beyond California’s borders. If Peter Wohlleben’s The Hidden Life of Trees and Richard Powers’s The Overstory opened readers’ eyes to the awesome power of arboreal life, The Forests of California gives readers a unique and unprecedented immersion in that power.
640 pages, Flexibound
Published September 7, 2020
22 people are currently reading
406 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
October 21, 2020
Biodiversity, history, geology and a fine array of art
Obi Kaufmann, who brought us The California Field Atlas (#1 San Francisco Chronicle Best Seller) presents another major work, The Forests of California. This is the third of six books in Kaufmann’s planned series exploring the state’s diverse environment and is the first of his planned “California Lands” trilogy.
An atlas is a collection of maps, illustrations and text. A field atlas is designed to be used in the ‘field’ as an ongoing resource, and Kaufmann gives us something rich, distinctive and fascinating. Dive in wherever you like to find a page that engages and keeps you turning more pages, or if you prefer, stop to learn more about a specific forest or tree in California. This book is not just a reference tool, but could be seen as an invitation to think differently about habitat, vegitative alliances and the hope we can hold through better understanding of our relationship to place.
Kaufmann’s basic premise that we protect what we love, and we love what we know, has led him on a journey of sharing from his vast field experience and mind for creating a mix of data points with personal expression. Add poetry, calligraphy and stunning watercolors to science and ecological history, and you can begin to get the picture of Kaufmann’s humanistic approach to nature.
Kaufmann does not presume to be a scientist and is the first to recognize how his own passion and thousands of miles of backpacking California have shaped a unique perspective. In his recent LitQuake interview, Kaufmann acknowledges,
“I am coming to you with all this other potentially treacherous subjectivity. I am not inviting you a lot to come to your own ideas….This is the result of my conclusions… I want to excite and expose how exciting a time it is to become a student of ecology.”
Divided into nine sections which retrace the history of California’s formative influences over a long arch of time, it offers a perspective of biodiversity and native vegetation alliances in California's forests. Watersheds, habitat and stewardship figure into the scope of topics addressed, which reach forward into the next century.
Every so often, a book presents something so profound that it goes far beyond the written page and reaches out to transform not only thinking, but acting. The Forests of California is such a book.
Kaufmann describes his passion for forests as something both satisfying and whetting an appetite for more. An apt description for a book that leaves one waiting for the next set of new ideas to embrace.
“It is like a magic well. If I could take a drink of water and the more water you drink, the more water there is in the well. It is that deep, robust, beautiful and romantic, that I could just make a map a day for the rest of my life and never tell the whole story…I could make a hundred maps a day for the rest of my life and never tell the whole story that I wanted to tell.”
Whether for yourself or gifting, Obi Kaufmann provides a quiver full of fine words and art, opening doors to the natural world we inhabit.
Buy from Heyday or your independent bookstore
https://shop.aer.io/heyday/p/Forests_...
LitQuake Interview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LA1F4...
Obi Kaufmann, who brought us The California Field Atlas (#1 San Francisco Chronicle Best Seller) presents another major work, The Forests of California. This is the third of six books in Kaufmann’s planned series exploring the state’s diverse environment and is the first of his planned “California Lands” trilogy.
An atlas is a collection of maps, illustrations and text. A field atlas is designed to be used in the ‘field’ as an ongoing resource, and Kaufmann gives us something rich, distinctive and fascinating. Dive in wherever you like to find a page that engages and keeps you turning more pages, or if you prefer, stop to learn more about a specific forest or tree in California. This book is not just a reference tool, but could be seen as an invitation to think differently about habitat, vegitative alliances and the hope we can hold through better understanding of our relationship to place.
Kaufmann’s basic premise that we protect what we love, and we love what we know, has led him on a journey of sharing from his vast field experience and mind for creating a mix of data points with personal expression. Add poetry, calligraphy and stunning watercolors to science and ecological history, and you can begin to get the picture of Kaufmann’s humanistic approach to nature.
Kaufmann does not presume to be a scientist and is the first to recognize how his own passion and thousands of miles of backpacking California have shaped a unique perspective. In his recent LitQuake interview, Kaufmann acknowledges,
“I am coming to you with all this other potentially treacherous subjectivity. I am not inviting you a lot to come to your own ideas….This is the result of my conclusions… I want to excite and expose how exciting a time it is to become a student of ecology.”
Divided into nine sections which retrace the history of California’s formative influences over a long arch of time, it offers a perspective of biodiversity and native vegetation alliances in California's forests. Watersheds, habitat and stewardship figure into the scope of topics addressed, which reach forward into the next century.
Every so often, a book presents something so profound that it goes far beyond the written page and reaches out to transform not only thinking, but acting. The Forests of California is such a book.
Kaufmann describes his passion for forests as something both satisfying and whetting an appetite for more. An apt description for a book that leaves one waiting for the next set of new ideas to embrace.
“It is like a magic well. If I could take a drink of water and the more water you drink, the more water there is in the well. It is that deep, robust, beautiful and romantic, that I could just make a map a day for the rest of my life and never tell the whole story…I could make a hundred maps a day for the rest of my life and never tell the whole story that I wanted to tell.”
Whether for yourself or gifting, Obi Kaufmann provides a quiver full of fine words and art, opening doors to the natural world we inhabit.
Buy from Heyday or your independent bookstore
https://shop.aer.io/heyday/p/Forests_...
LitQuake Interview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LA1F4...
September 14, 2020
Another beautiful and thoughtful book on California, this time on our forests. A great follow up to The California Field Atlas; and like that one, the watercolor illustrations are just plain gorgeous. From the ancient forests to how they came to be as they are today, threatened by climate breakdown, I learned loads more than I thought I would! This is one of those instances where having the physical book is better than the e-book, as flipping back and forth from the illustrations to the descriptions will be much easier. Highly recommended for nature lovers and CA historian buffs!
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December 4, 2024Essential reading if you live in and/or travel in California. I have all of Obi Kaufmann's books, and each of them has opened my eyes to the incredible diversity of California's natural communities, ecosystems, and species.
July 4, 2021
The Forests of California is a supremely important work and essential reading for Californians, environmentalists, outdoor enthusiasts or anyone looking for a deeper understanding of the complexity of forest ecosystems, especially those with concern and care for the impending ecological breakdown we face on our planet.
Kaufmann’s watercolors are striking. It is a joy to simply sit and thumb through the pages savoring the detail of each one. His organizational mind brings order to the enormity of his subject complimented by beautiful maps, charts, and diagrams. If you are traveling to a particular area of the state or want to learn more about where you live, it is easy to focus your study on the desired region. I read this book cover to cover. Each chapter builds on the last creating a structured picture of the current state of our forests and offering a view of our shared future.
I will return to this book many times as I continue to explore the natural world of the Golden State.
Kaufmann’s watercolors are striking. It is a joy to simply sit and thumb through the pages savoring the detail of each one. His organizational mind brings order to the enormity of his subject complimented by beautiful maps, charts, and diagrams. If you are traveling to a particular area of the state or want to learn more about where you live, it is easy to focus your study on the desired region. I read this book cover to cover. Each chapter builds on the last creating a structured picture of the current state of our forests and offering a view of our shared future.
I will return to this book many times as I continue to explore the natural world of the Golden State.
September 4, 2024
Mr. Kaufmann & I have different definitions of “field atlas”. I was looking for a book to help me recognize tree varieties when visiting forests in California. There is a detailed description of every tree that grows in the state, but nothing to help me recognize one when I see it.
Book is full of beautiful water colors done by the author. I’m impressed that virtually every page ends with a complete sentence. There is a lot of hand written illustrations in the book. I found them to be nearly illegible, and it didn’t take me long before I quit even trying to decipher them.
Also lots of maps, most of which I thought were useless. Also charts with figures I didn’t care much about, like how many acres of each particular tree can be found in each area being written about.
The agenda of the book is to convince me that people are destroying the environment in California with great detail about just how we are doing that. Very repetitively. I didn’t need convincing. I knew that already before I ever opened the book or stepped foot in the state. For me, the detailed repetition of environmental and climate destruction was way too too information. I got bored with that in a hurry.
What I did find fascinating in the book is the discussion of fire. I only know about fire in the state from the media, where it is always presented as the worst thing that can ever happen. This book has a lot of excellent discussion about the necessity of regular smaller natural fires in the forests. This was new information to me. I was very glad to learn it.
So, obviously I am not the intended audience for this book, so it’s my bad for buying it in the first place, but it’s not my cup of tea & I can’t recommend it. And I was sorry not to be able to identify trees when I visited the forests. I’ll never be there again, so it was my only chance, and I missed it.
Book is full of beautiful water colors done by the author. I’m impressed that virtually every page ends with a complete sentence. There is a lot of hand written illustrations in the book. I found them to be nearly illegible, and it didn’t take me long before I quit even trying to decipher them.
Also lots of maps, most of which I thought were useless. Also charts with figures I didn’t care much about, like how many acres of each particular tree can be found in each area being written about.
The agenda of the book is to convince me that people are destroying the environment in California with great detail about just how we are doing that. Very repetitively. I didn’t need convincing. I knew that already before I ever opened the book or stepped foot in the state. For me, the detailed repetition of environmental and climate destruction was way too too information. I got bored with that in a hurry.
What I did find fascinating in the book is the discussion of fire. I only know about fire in the state from the media, where it is always presented as the worst thing that can ever happen. This book has a lot of excellent discussion about the necessity of regular smaller natural fires in the forests. This was new information to me. I was very glad to learn it.
So, obviously I am not the intended audience for this book, so it’s my bad for buying it in the first place, but it’s not my cup of tea & I can’t recommend it. And I was sorry not to be able to identify trees when I visited the forests. I’ll never be there again, so it was my only chance, and I missed it.
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January 21, 2025This is such a pretty book. I originally picked it up as a reference book for some research but when I saw the illustrations I knew that I hadti read the entire book. In retrospect, I wish it were a little bit more what I expected: an encyclopaedia type book about the forest types in California with lots of information about all the plant, animal, and fungi species living within. The book does describe the different forest types but the description of species is quite sparse. This is supposed to convey how connected life really is - something I‘m very aware of already so I can’t say how successful this endeavour was - but to me this ended up putting more distance been me and the Californian forests. This book, I believe, is best suited for planning a long hike across California: to find out about the regions you‘d cross, have a jumping off point for researching about the species you‘ll (or want to) encounter, and pour over this book for little details in these environments to watch out for. Less of a hike and more of an attempt to recreate within only few trips what Kaufman has done over the course of years: experience California, begin to understand its ecosystems, and revel in its beauty.
That being said, I really love reading about people who describe the love for a specific environment (even better if it is the environment they grew up in). Thus, regardless of my „gripe“ with this book, I can only repeat: it is beautiful. And a very pleasant read additionally.
That being said, I really love reading about people who describe the love for a specific environment (even better if it is the environment they grew up in). Thus, regardless of my „gripe“ with this book, I can only repeat: it is beautiful. And a very pleasant read additionally.
September 27, 2022
I didn't want to finish this because it meant summer was really over and I'd have to stop giving such attention to beautiful things.
"The effort to strike a balance between extraction and replenishment and to replace the idea of reclamation with the vision of restoration will go on for generations to come. Our job is to fulfill the responsibility of deeper geographic literacy, and to debate how the tangled interface of private and public land works to serve or hinder the natural health of the state and thereby ourselves."
The day I finished this book, I found this poem: “Lost” by David Wagoner
Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you.
If you leave it, you may come back again, saying Here.
No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. You must let it find you.
"The effort to strike a balance between extraction and replenishment and to replace the idea of reclamation with the vision of restoration will go on for generations to come. Our job is to fulfill the responsibility of deeper geographic literacy, and to debate how the tangled interface of private and public land works to serve or hinder the natural health of the state and thereby ourselves."
The day I finished this book, I found this poem: “Lost” by David Wagoner
Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you.
If you leave it, you may come back again, saying Here.
No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. You must let it find you.
May 2, 2021
As a Californian who spends a fair bit of time amidst trees, this is the book I've been wanting to read for years. Ostensibly a field guide to the state's various forests, the book is also focused on deeper questions of how forests work and why we should care about them. I really appreciated the focus on how specific California ecosystems work, the importance of wildfire, and how climate change, loss of biodiversity and habitat, invasive species, and other threats are changing our forests. Plus it has some lovely watercolors.
October 31, 2020
This is not a book to be read through page by page, but since I got it from the library, that's what I have done. One needs to own this book, use it to find trails and forests when needed. There is a lot about climate change or as the author says, climate breakdown, in the book and about extinctions, California has more endangered species than any other state except possibly Hawaii. Also the book is full of drawings by their author and almost poems. 4.5
November 22, 2024
A Beautiful but Broad Look at California’s Forests
Obi Kaufmann’s The Forests of California offers a visually rich and poetic exploration of the state’s diverse ecosystems. His passion and knowledge are evident, and the watercolor illustrations are stunning. However, while informative, the book lacks the depth of expert scientific analysis, leaving some questions unanswered.
Overall, it’s a thoughtful and artistic read, perfect for those seeking inspiration rather than a technical deep dive.
Obi Kaufmann’s The Forests of California offers a visually rich and poetic exploration of the state’s diverse ecosystems. His passion and knowledge are evident, and the watercolor illustrations are stunning. However, while informative, the book lacks the depth of expert scientific analysis, leaving some questions unanswered.
Overall, it’s a thoughtful and artistic read, perfect for those seeking inspiration rather than a technical deep dive.
May 6, 2021
Brilliant. Must read if you're a Californian
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March 26, 2022Not really one you read in a single sitting but rather keep in your back pack and absorb while you're out in the woods.
December 30, 2022
The pictures are gorgeous. Some of the sections such as the one on various dominant and codominant trees dragged and were repetitive.
October 19, 2024
Beautiful love letter to California forests
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews