
Obi Kaufmann, author of The Forests of California and The California Field Atlas, explores the transformation of California’s resource landscape from its ancient origins through its modern challenges to its future possibilities. Utilizing a unique and exciting brew of convergent ideas between art and science, Obi tells a story of how the road through geographic literacy leads to a new era of conservation, one that we will usher in together. By addressing the profound changes our distinctive landscape has undergone and continues to go through, Obi explores what those experiences might mean for the future of humanity in this most beautiful and perilous of all places, our lovely California.
Through a special partnership with Walnut Creek’s Flashlight Books, autographed bookplates will be included with every book purchase. The Forests of California can be ordered here. Obi Kaufmann’s other books can also be found on Flashlight Books’ website for purchase.
Register HereGrowing up in the East Bay as the son of an astrophysicist and a psychologist, Obi Kaufmann spent most of high school practicing calculus and breaking away on weekends to scramble around Mount Diablo and map its creeks, oak forests, and sage mazes. Into adulthood, he would regularly journey into the mountains, spending more summer nights without a roof than with one. He is the author of The California Field Atlas (2017, #1 San Francisco Chronicle Best Seller), The State of Water: Understanding California’s Most Precious Natural Resource (2019), and The Forests of California: A California Field Atlas (2020), 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 website is coyoteandthunder.com.