The Cold Canyon Fire Journals: Green Shoots and Silver Linings in the Ashes

Braiding together illustration, observation, and reportage, artist and naturalist Robin Lee Carlson offers a watershed work that will forever change how we live with wildfire in the West.

When the nature reserve at Cold Canyon went up in flamesa casualty of Californias raging fire seasonsRobin Lee Carlson embarked on a five-year journey to learn the legacy of the burn. Spurred by scientific curiosity, Carlsons deep digs into the natural history of this fire-swept ecosystem unearth mind-bending revelations about natures wild wisdom. Her transformative story of fire as a force for renewal underscores what scientists are urgently working to understand: that in Californias wildfire ecologies, fire functions as an elemental power that does not destroy the diverse habitats of California, but regenerates them. Richly illustrated in pen, ink, and watercolor, this snapshot of Cold Canyons wildlife emerging from the ashes introduces the reader to the wonder of ecological kinship and its cycles in our wild lands. Carlsons artistic and scientific journey ultimately leads her (and us) to a new understanding of how we must live in relationship to fire and to the land. With fire suppression and climate change undermining the essential regenerative work of fire in our ecosystem, Carlsons story is an urgent oneone that shows us how cultivating intimacy with our natural world teaches us what we need to do to sustain it.