Search results for ""Author Obi Kaufmann""

How do we live with fire? From the creator of The California Field Atlas, a book of stewardship, resilience, and hope.Fire is an essential part of California''s ecology. Humans have been using it to shape the California landscape for thousands of years. But today many Californians'' relationship to fire is one of fear. Obi Kaufmann, author of the best-selling California Field Atlas, now asks: How do we live with fire? What makes fire essential to a healthy and biodiverse Golden State, and how do we benefit from its teachings? With the same solution-minded ethic as his much-admired The State of Water: Understanding California''s Most Precious Resource, Kaufmann presents fire as a force of regeneration rather than apocalypse. He considers the long history of ecological burns, the varied ways fire behaves across the state, and the lessons we can learn from California''s largest fires of recent decades.Packed with Kaufmann''s signature watercolo

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A San Francisco Chronicle bestseller!An epic, gloriously illustrated journey up and down California’s shoreline.California’s coastline is world famous, an endless source of fascination and fantasy, but there is no book about it like this one. Obi Kaufmann, author-illustrator of The California Field Atlas and The Forests of California, now turns his attention to the 1,200 miles of the Golden State where the land meets the ocean. Bursting with color, The Coasts of California is in Kaufmann’s signature style, fusing science with art and pure poetic reverie. And much more than a survey of tourist spots, Coasts is a full immersion into the astonishingly varied natural worlds that hug California’s shoreline. With hundreds of gorgeous watercolor maps and illustrations, Kaufmann explores the rhythms of the tides, the lives of sea creatures, the shifting of rocks and sand, and the special habitats found on California’s islands. At the book’s core is an expansive, detailed walk down the California Coastal Trail, including maps of parks along the way—a wealth of knowledge for any coast-lover. The Coasts of California is a geographic epic, an odyssey in nature, a grand and glorious book for a grand and glorious part of the world.

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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 TimesFrom 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.

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A new classic gets the deluxe treatment!Following the success of Obi Kaufmann’s bestselling The California Field Atlas, this Deluxe Edition features a larger format showcasing Kaufmann’s sumptuous watercolors and lettering. In addition to its larger size, the Deluxe Edition has illustrated endpapers, a ribbon bookmark, premium paper, and gold embossing on a luxurious leather-like cover. This is a must-have for any book lover, or for fans of nature guides, atlases, and works that fuse science and art. Plus, with a limited print run and deluxe materials, this edition makes a stunning gift.A winner of multiple awards, including the 2018 California Book Award (Notable Contribution to Publishing) and the NCIBA Book of the Year Award (Regional Interest), and a #1 San Francisco Chronicle bestseller, The California Field Atlas is unlike any other book. Artist-adventurer Obi Kaufmann takes readers beyond normal conceptions of California, blending science and art to illuminate the state’s multifaceted array of living, connected systems. Kaufmann unveils layer after layer of the natural world, depicting its myriad ecologies, topographies, and histories in exquisite maps and trail paintings. The effect is staggeringly beautiful: a California made up of dancing tectonic plates, watersheds, and wildflower gardens. In addition to maps, this atlas offers spirited illustrations of wildlife, keys that explain natural phenomena, and a clear-sighted but reverential text. Full of character and in a class all its own, The California Field Atlas is the ultimate love letter to the Golden State.

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A magnificent illustrated journey into California’s famed deserts and the astonishingly abundant life they contain.A San Francisco Chronicle Bestseller!From Obi Kaufmann, author-illustrator of the best-selling California Field Atlas, comes a grand adventure through time, geography, and ecology in California’s deserts. Of a piece with his richly illustrated books The Forests of California and The Coasts of California, this volume features hundreds of vivid watercolor maps and illustrations, blending art and science to breathtaking effect. Journeying through the Great Basin, Mojave, Colorado, and Sonoran Deserts, Kaufmann pays special attention to national and state parks and monuments, and to the dozens of wilderness areas that reveal the underappreciated natural abundance of California’s arid lands. From Joshua Tree to Death Valley, these deserts full of life, as Kaufmann evokes them, are perfect places for meditating on our future, and for imagining a California that might thrive beyond the age of climate breakdown. The Deserts of California is a canonical entry into the literature of the American deserts, uniquely colorful and celebratory, and abounding in hope and wonder.

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Obi Kaufmann, author of the best-selling California Field Atlas, turns his artful yet analytical attention to the Golden State's single most complex and controversial resource: water.In this book, Kaufmann's signature full-color maps unravel the braided knot of California's water infrastructure and ecosystems, exposing a history of unlimited growth in spite of finite natural resources—a history that has led to its current precarious circumstances. Yet this built world depends upon the biosphere, and in The State of Water Kaufmann argues that environmental conservation and restoration efforts are necessary not only for ethical reasons but also as a matter of human survival. Offering nine perspectives to illustrate the most pressing challenges facing California's water infrastructure, from dams to species revitalization, Kaufmann reveals pragmatic yet inspiring solutions to how water in the West can continue to support agriculture, municipalities, and the environment. Interspersed throughout with trail paintings of animals that might yet survive under a caring and careful water ethic, Kaufmann shows how California can usher in a new era of responsible water conservation, and—perhaps most importantly—how we may do so together.

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#1 San Francisco Chronicle Best SellerWinner, 2018 California Book Award Gold Medal (Notable Contribution to Publishing)Winner, 2018 NCIBA Book of the Year Award (Regional Interest)Finalist, 2018 Northern California Book Awards"A gorgeously illustrated compendium."—SunsetThis lavishly illustrated atlas takes readers off the beaten path and outside normal conceptions of California, revealing its myriad ecologies, topographies, and histories in exquisite maps and trail paintings. Based on decades of exploring the backcountry of the Golden State, artist-adventurer Obi Kaufmann blends science and art to illuminate the multifaceted array of living, connected systems like no book has done before. Kaufmann depicts layer after layer of the natural world, delighting in the grand scale and details alike. The effect is staggeringly beautiful: presented alongside California divvied into its fifty-eight counties, for example, we consider California made up of dancing tectonic plates, of watersheds, of wildflower gardens. Maps are enhanced by spirited illustrations of wildlife, keys that explain natural phenomena, and a clear-sighted but reverential text. Full of character and color, a bit larger than life, The California Field Atlas is the ultimate road trip companion and love letter to a place.

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Transcendent eco-luxe arrangements and installations created by famed floral designer Louesa Roebuck from seasonal flora foraged from the West Coast From acclaimed artist, author, and floral designer Louesa Roebuck, Punk Ikebana presents breathtaking installations and arrangements that unite the beauty of restraint with the exuberance of nature. Working with seasonal, locally available foraged flora and crafts from various regions of the West Coast, Roebuck aligns her deep commitment to the environment with her love of creating in harmony with her surroundings. Each chapter embodies her unique aesthetic, which is inspired by both the beauty of the region and the poetry of Japan, incorporating the enduring ethos of eco-luxe and zero-waste design. In addition to utilizing distinctive vessels, Roebuck plays with scale, showing readers how to cultivate their own eye to create centerpieces for their homes, from sweeping installations to intimate arrangements. These stunning compositions, which transcend tradition and venture into the realm of the cinematic, celebrate the wholeness of nature, inviting readers to embrace the elemental beauty right outside their doors.

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