Skip to content
FREE SHIPPING ON ALL DOMESTIC ORDERS $35+
FREE SHIPPING ON ALL US ORDERS $35+

The California Field Atlas: A California Field Atlas

Availability:
in stock, ready to be shipped
Save 13% Save 13%
Original price $55.00
Original price $55.00 - Original price $55.00
Original price $55.00
Current price $47.99
$47.99 - $47.99
Current price $47.99
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.

ISBN-13: 9781597145510

Media Type: Paperback

Publisher: Heyday

Publication Date: 04-19-2022

Pages: 672

Product Dimensions: 6.00(w) x 7.90(h) x 2.00(d)

Growing up in the East Bay as the son of an astrophysicist and a psychologist, Obi Kaufmann spent most of his 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.

Table of Contents

CONTENTS

Introduction

Keys and measures

01. Symmetry and Succession: Perspectives on time and ecology
02. Fault-Line Symphony: The geomorphology of coastal California
03. Elemental Rhythms: Energy, weather, and the cycles of wind and wave
04. Sand and Rivers: Littoral patterns and estuary types
05. As Above, So Below: A survey of coastal habitat types
06. All Creatures Great and Small: Coastal biodiversity
07. A Good, Long Walk: The California Coastal Trail
08. Each a Character: The islands of California
09. Policies and Protections: Stewardship of the land and sea
10. Navigating a Chaotic Sea: Modeling hope and peril

Acknowledgements
Glossary
Notes
Selected Bibliography
About the Author