California Department of Fish and Game (DFG) is investigating the suspicious death of one of the last remaining male mountain lions in an important National Park Service (NPS) wildlife study. The 7-year-old animal, dubbed P-15, was discovered on September 11. Officials say he did not die of natural causes. more ›

A mountain lion kitten striking out on his own was killed Tuesday morning, while trying to cross the 405 just south of the Getty Center. The National Park Service has been following the movement of this mountain lion born in the Santa Monica Mountains in May 2010 and equipped with a GPS collar. They named him "P-18." more ›

U2's guitarist, The Edge (aka David Evans), has joined other property owners and is suing state regulators "after they rejected a proposal to build a cluster of mansions in Malibu," reports ABC Local. The National Park Service is also opposed to the project saying the development would "scar the expansive ridgeline more ›

Off the 101 Freeway in Central California is one of the older National Park Service units. In 1908, Theodore Roosevelt named 2,500 acres of the Gabilan Mountains, made up of "rock spires and crags that are remnants of an ancient volcano," as the Park Service puts it. Today, Pinnacles National Monument is 26,000 acres and there's a campaign to designated it as a National Park. more ›

A litter of three mountain lion kittens were born late last month and a new adult mountain lion living locally has been discovered, the National Park Service has announced. Since 2002, biologists having been tracking and studying the movements of mountain lions in the Santa Monica Mountains, Simi Hills and Santa Susana Mountains to better understand how they live surrounded by development. more ›

Bad news for anyone wanting to see the height of bird season this year on Anacapa Island. The National Park Service yesterday closed Anacapa Island because the staircase, which climbs over 150 steps to access 200-foot high cliffs, has deteriorated into a condition that is no longer safe for the public. more ›

A hike through the National Park Service's property in the Simi Hills will give you a different perspective about the surrounding landscape of Los Angeles. Recent rains help green the area in the Winter and Spring, but the soft and gentle rolling hills found within Cheeseboro and Palo Comado Canyons offer a chance for peaceful and calm hikes in a beautifully serene landscape. Although these two canyons are officially part of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, it's just one of many gateways into this less-than talked about outdoors spot. more ›

The largest urban national park is partly within Los Angeles, yet so many don't know it. Perhaps one of the reasons can be blamed on where the National Park Service set up its visitor center and headquarters 11 years ago this week: in Thousand Oaks. Take a look at the over 153,000 acres that make up the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, which basically spans the range from Runyon Canyon in Hollywood to the beaches of Malibu, and you'll see that the suburban Conejo Valley floor is not ideal. more ›

Tucked at the southern end of the Franklin Canyon on a dead-end road is Franklin Ranch, home to picnicking area, a small bench area for outdoor classes and a nice 2.3-mile loop trail known as the Hastain Trail. more ›

We're big fans of looking at nature photos taken in and around Los Angeles. We've seen bobcats, mountain lions, waterfalls, scenic views through the lenses of photographers who really haven't traveled that far, sometimes only minutes from Hollywood. It's just some of the best delicious eye candy of Southern California in our opinion. more ›

About 30 people gathered yesterday to assist the National Park Service and other regional parks agencies in developing a new interagency headquarters, centrally located in the Santa Monica Mountains at King Gillette Ranch, just outside of Calabasas. more ›

In 2007, a collaboration of parks agencies--local to federal--purchased King Gillette Ranch (if you're thinking shaving razors, you're on the right track) with plans to open an interagency visitor center for for the Santa Monica Mountains. Currently, the National Park Service, which manages the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, has a visitor center and headquarters in Thousand Oaks, far off the beaten path for many in the immediate Los Angeles region. King Gillette Ranch sits in the heart of the mountain rage, off Las Virgenes Road between Calabasas and Malibu, which is much closer to trails and nature than the suburban mall and sprawl setting of Thousand Oaks. more ›

In less than a months time, rangers with the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area area have captured and placed a GPS collar on a second mountain lion. Found Saturday morning in a trap set by National Park Service scientists around Malibu Springs, the approximately 2-year-old lion became the 14th to wear a tracking collar around its neck. At the end of July, a female with a similar age was found and collared. P14 and P13, respectively, have blood samples being analyzed by researchers at UCLA to determine connections, if any, to other lions studied in mountains. more ›

Two wildfires north of the Los Angeles region had prompted partial closures within National Park units over the weekend, but today one opened as the other continues to see dangers. The Gloria Fire has been after burning some 6,400 acres northeast of Soledad and near Pinnacles National Monument. Officials with the National Park Service closed portions of the monument on Friday and today announced the reopening. “Pinnacles has been working closely with Cal Fire and with the fire completely contained and all evacuations and road closures lifted, I am comfortable lifting the park’s temporary closures,” Superintendent Eric Brunnemann explained in a statement. more ›

Well, she may not be the newest or youngest in our local mountains, but she is the most recent cougar to be trapped, tagged and released by the National Park Service, who has been conducting a study with them over the past seven years. P-13 (they are named in the order they are caught) was captured on July 31st in the Hidden Valley region, which is the northwest sector of the mountains south of Newbury Park. She is now the third active GPS collar being tracked. more ›

A Grand Canyon-bound tour helicopter from Las Vegas made an emergency landing at Lake Mead yesterday after a large bird crashing into the windshield. The pilot suffered a face laceration, but there no injuries to the six tourists from London aboard. The Cormorant bird strike happened around 5:40 p.m. as the helicopter was over the Lake Mead National Recreation Area. more ›

A 50-year-old man who jumped into Lake Mohave on Sunday is presumed drowned after rescue personnel suspended a search as night fell. The Lawndale man, whose identity has not been released, jumped into the water without a life jacket to retrieve a lost hat. "He went underwater and has not been seen since," according to a statement from the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, a popular destination for Southern Californians. Two Californians have died already this year at the area managed by the National Park Service. On Memorial weekend, an El Monte man drowned followed by another California man in late June. more ›

When a bald eagles disappear from the Channel Islands allowing room for Golden Eagles, who eat really cute little foxes, to take over, everyone freaks out (got 20 mins? Watch this amazing short documentary). When a pretty flowering Spanish Broom begins to grow, not many take notice despite it being one of the top invasive and harmful-to-the-ecosystem plants found in the Santa Monica Mountains. Now, that might start to change. more ›

The National Park Service does not want to take control of state parks, but will take six of them, including the nearby Point Mugu State Park, if Gov. Schwarzenegger's proposal to close 80%, or 220, of them goes through under a Federal land transfer agreement. If parks do close, they will stay open through at least labor day. "It's important to note that nobody is proposing to close these parks permanently. This is a temporary suspension until budget times are better," a State Parks spokesman told the LA Times. "We have no intention of giving them away or selling them. There's an interest in finding a way to preserve and protect them. It could be temporary federal control. We would hope they can come back to state parks." A proposal to pay for state parks via an annual $15 fee on vehicle registrations will be vetoed by Schwarzenegger if it hits his desk. Last month, LAist exposed a letter--currently making the media rounds--from the National Park Service to the Governor alerting him to the legal consequences. more ›

Following up on an LAist story published last week, the San Jose Mercury News spoke to Governor Schwarzenegger's office about a letter from the National Park Service to the state about closing parks. In that letter, Pacific regional director Jon Jarvis, informed Schwarzenegger that closing some 69 parks that received funding in the past jeopardized all future funding and that a handful of parks deeded to the state from the feds, including part of Point Mugu near Malibu, could be repossessed. more ›

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget-saving threat to close 80% of state parks for two years has the federal government raising a red flag. Numerous parks, including a handful local to Los Angeles, are under stipulations to stay open to the public because the land was fully or partially federally funded or transferred to the state from federal ownership. more ›

If you didn't know, Los Angeles is placed within quite a rare landscape, biologically speaking that is. There are only six Mediterranean Biomes in the world making up 2% of the world's land area and Southern California's coast and surrounding mountains are part of that. This is one of the reasons why congress in 1978 decided bring in the Santa Monica Mountains and the five northern Channel Islands into the Department of the Interior under the National Park Service. They were named the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area and Channel Islands National Park. more ›

Since 2002, the National Park Service has been tracking Mountain Lions in the Santa Monica Mountains, studying their movements, pinpointing their ranges and observing how human development impacts their population. Twelve have been tracked in that time with some remarkable finds. more ›

After hearing about the unfortunate death of a mountain lion on the 5 Freeway this morning, we found another puma photo via the National Park Service. This time, it's good news. She, named P6, was tagged awhile ago by the Service, but her radio collar stopped working two years ago. more ›

Last week, a team of National Park Service botanist were surveying for sensitive and endagnered species near Sandstone Peak, the tallest point in the Santa Monica Mountains, when they came upon something out of place. It was whisker brush (Leptosiphon ciliatus), which is typically found at higher elevations in the Sierras, not in Southern California, even around 3,000 feet elevation. more ›

"We're not a travelogue, we're not a nature fim, we're not a recomendation on which lodge to stay in. It's the story how this place got started," a zealous Ken Burns said of his upcoming twelve hour documentary on the National Parks. He and his crew have spent what many dream about: six years of traveling the country from National Park to National Park exploring some of the country's most beautiful and historically and culturally significant places. more ›

When National Park Service employees in Thousand Oaks yesterday morning checked on the mountain lions they monitor via GPS in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, they discovered that one of them visited an unusual location. On Wednesday night, one was in the vicinity of the 405 Freeway and the Skirball Museum. more ›

For twenty-four hours starting tomorrow at noon, 120 scientists, 1,400 LAUSD students and community members will embark on the 2nd National Geographic BioBlitz in the Santa Monica Mountains Recreation Area (though some say it's essentially a National Park), which stretches from the ocean to Cahuenga Pass at the 101 Freeway. Together they will comb the area, as well as Griffith Park, observing and recording as many plant and animal species as possible in 24 hours. Think of it as part scientific endeavor, part festival and part outdoor classroom. more ›

Despite the risk of building a home, selling a home and moving into a home in a high risk fire zone, companies, homeowners and governments still find it acceptable finds the LA Times today. "This is a land rush into danger," said Roger Kennedy, former director of the National Park Service and author of a recent book on wildfires. "A land rush by people who do not understand what they are doing and who... more ›

Yup, it's what you were thinking -- razors. The baron of a clean shave himself, King Camp Gillette, bought this land off of the now Mulholland Hwy in 1926 after making a fortune in the early 1900s off of the safety razor. Today, his home and ranch are open to the public for the first time. Near the entrance of Malibu Creek State Park, the 588-acre park was collaboratively purchased for $35 million by... more ›