If you’ve ever seen an Obi Kaufmann book, you know that you’re in for a treat. He combines watercolors, sketches, handwritten notes, and well-researched information and stories into a focused narrative that brings to life the topic at hand. His most recent books include the California Field Atlas trilogy (The Deserts of California, The Coasts of California, and The Forests of California). His latest, The State of Fire: Why California Burns, explores a very different aspect of California: how fire and natural ecosystems intersect.

A catalyst for this book was Kaufmann’s artist residency with the National Park Service at Whiskeytown National Recreation Area, five years after the Carr Fire, a megafire that burned nearly 230,000 acres across Northern California before it was fully contained. The fire changed and reset the ecosystem at Whiskeytown, giving Kaufmann plenty to consider. “California’s ecology and biodiversity have an ancient, profound, and fecund relationship with human fire on the land,” he writes. “The relationship between anthropogenic fire and the character of California’s living landscape is so intrinsic that without it, California would not be California.” Fire is necessary for growth and rebirth, though for a long time it was seen as something to be avoided. He goes on to note, “California’s biodiversity largely exists as it does because of fire and not despite it.”

The book is laid out in three main parts: Fire History, Fire Ecology, and Fire Principles, with hand-drawn maps of Whiskeytown, national forests in California, major watersheds, and various regions of the state. Scattered throughout the text are illustrations of different trees and animals, such as a Coast redwood or a California spotted owl, along with short observations that appear to be taken from his notebooks, in Kaufmann’s own handwriting.

In Fire History, Kaufmann takes readers back three billion years, to the development of photosynthesis in microbial cyanobacteria, explaining how the changes in the atmosphere set the stage for later fire in the environment. He traces California’s transformation through the eras, making specific note of the use of fire by Indigenous peoples, and finally, pointing out the newer use of fossil fuels, shifting from the Pyrocene to the more aptly titled Petrocene. He discusses land conservation and practices, writing, “On the state and federal levels, the future of colonial policies in California that are predicated on the concepts of nature and wilderness will hinge on the ability to articulate the intersection between justice and ecology in terms of land management practice, tradition [sic] ecological knowledge, and fire science.”

Fire Ecology starts off with a definition of the discipline, which is essentially the study of fires in various ecosystems like forests, and how changes in fires’ severity, frequency, and extent of burning impact said ecosystems. He then goes on to list various effects of fire on things like soil fecundity, pathogenic transmission, bee and flower diversity, and apex predators, illustrating how fire transforms each part of the ecosystem. Kaufmann looks at various regions of California, writing about each one and noting parts of the ecosystem and their relationships to fire and how they’ve adapted to it (or not).

Lastly, in Fire Principles, he takes on climate breakdown, the challenges and opportunities of wildland fires, and how California and its people can create a cooperative relationship with fire to use it to nature and society’s advantage. Because he calls in the reader and the larger public to examine their responsibilities to the land and to other people, I would have liked to have seen something more practical, perhaps a section speaking directly to the practical, actionable things we can do for the land. But most of Kaufmann’s readers might be those who already know. Regardless, Kaufmann reminds the reader that, “just as pyrodiversity has informed biodiversity, fire informs human ecology and will increasingly inform economic development. Popular knowledge of why California burns is essential to the process. You are essential to the process.”

Overall, Obi Kaufmann’s The State of Fire: Why California Burns is a worthy addition to any collection of Kaufmann books, and his thoughtful notes on nature and detailed drawings are always a pleasure. This is a book to return to again and again, and I can see how each time, readers will get something new from the text, as well as from the maps and notes nestled throughout. And as fire becomes more and more recognized as a part of California’s ecosystems, Kaufmann’s book may be a valuable guide for the future.