Each fabric here was intentionally selected: the left half of the tree has dark brown bark with a fuzzy textured edge to give it life while the right half has an ashy or burnt bark; the fabric with burning bushes and trees represents the forests that are on fire; and the foliage on the left portion of the tree is swirling with life while the right portion is the reverse side of the fabric of the burning trees to appear aflame. Together these fabrics show the contrasts between healthy trees and those currently burning in California. The bark is especially significant because after a wildfire is put out, the only remaining semblance of life in a forest is the burnt bark of tree trunks.

This mountain range is only partly stitched to depict how the visibility of horizons through the traveling haze from the wildfires is reduced. The fabric in this patch is a speckled gray to resemble a sky that is polluted with particles. This patch is above the burning forest with the mountains smaller than the central tree to create a sense of distance between the fire itself and the haze from the fire since the smoke from the California wildfires impacts the air quality far beyond.

The river coming down from the mountains is dried out in this patch to represent the draining of waterways and poor distribution of water in general in California. In addition, the surroundings of the dried-out river are bland and lack vegetation to illustrate what a terrain might look like after a wildfire burns through and life has not been able to restore itself. Each patch is bordered with red "x" stitching to distinguish between the natural landscape and the regions devastated by California's wildfires.