Local artists restored a 1973 mural by artist J. Sergio O'Cadiz Moctezuma in Santa Ana over a period of almost two weeks.
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Julie Leopo
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LAist
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Topline:
After 50 years, a concrete relief mural by nearly forgotten artist J. Sergio O’Cadiz Moctezuma has been brought back to life. Slowly, his legacy is being rediscovered.
The backstory: O'Cadiz was a prominent artist in Orange County, where he settled in the early 1960s after moving to the U.S. from Mexico City. O’Cadiz was instrumental in creating art for several of the county’s public buildings, including Cypress College, where an imposing brutalist concrete relief mural he made for the school’s library building still stands. But over time, many of his works were destroyed.
Read on ... To learn more about the work of a muralist whose art was "like jazz" and whose idea of America was having "the right to be as Mexican as I want."
Artist Román O’Cadiz crouches down, dips his brush into freshly poured black paint, and adds the finishing strokes to the raised letters that spell out his grandfather's name.
He takes a step back and gazes at the finished mural, the painted words “Sergio O’Cadiz” gleaming in the sunlight.
The concrete relief mural in the entry plaza of Fremont Elementary School in Santa Ana was originally created by his grandfather, J. Sergio O’Cadiz Moctezuma.
In the last month, it has undergone a much-needed restoration led by the Santa Ana Community Artist(a) Coalition, a grassroots collaborative that works to promote and preserve public art through community-driven mural arts projects. The family of the late artist, who died in 2002, was also involved.
“It's cathartic,” said Román O’Cadiz. “It alleviates some of this frustration that my family has felt, and how his work hasn't been represented or appreciated in the way that we always felt it should.”
Decades ago, J. Sergio O’Cadiz Moctezuma was a prominent artist in Orange County, where he settled in the early 1960s after moving to the U.S. from Mexico City. O’Cadiz was instrumental in creating art for several of the county’s public buildings, including Cypress College, where an imposing brutalist concrete relief mural he made for the school’s library building still stands.
He created the Fremont Elementary mural in 1973, with the assistance of community members. The concrete mural spans two walls, set back from the street in Santa Ana’s Artesia Pilar Barrio, a historically Mexican American neighborhood just a few miles west from downtown.
The mural incorporates images like the sun, pyramids, and galleons, symbols that connote Mexico’s rich history. Over the years, neglect has taken its toll — there has been natural wear and tear, like UV damage and environmental degradation, and school district staff at one point changed the original color scheme of the stained concrete design. Still, O’Cadiz’s piece remained a timeless, powerful emblem of Santa Ana’s Mexican American community.
Peeling back the layers
Maria del Pilar O'Cadiz recalled the shock and dismay she felt upon seeking the extent of the damage to her father’s mural.
“It was tragic,” she told LAist. “These murals need to be conserved for our historical cultural patrimony, and it's a crime against the humanity of this community to destroy them. So this restoration is a realization of one of my lifelong dreams, and I'm full of joy for it — but it's unfortunate that we have to do it.”
Maria del Pilar O'Cadiz, the artist's daughter, visits the Fremont Elementary mural restoration site on June 9, 2023.
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Julie Leopo
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LAist
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The process of removing layers of saturated acrylic paint that were applied to the mural had to be done with care. It entails applying a special solution created by MuralColors, an L.A.-based business that produces art and architectural materials. In what is known as “delamination,” the solution was gradually applied to the piece in segments. Then a pressure washer was used to remove the paint without destroying the original art.
It’s a fraught but rewarding process, said Alicia Rojas, restoration project director and a founding member of the Santa Ana Community Artist(a) Coalition.
“This restoration carries a great responsibility and it’s important to us that we honor Sergio’s brush and vision," Rojas said. "It's a process that goes beyond the individual artists and parties involved — it's about our collective work, to uplift and amplify his art.”
Now, O’Cadiz’ intrinsic deep-relief patterns — rhythmic linear arabesques, abstract geometric designs, and Mondrian-like pops of primary colors — appear as ebullient as when the mural debuted 50 years ago.
The Fremont mural is one of two O’Cadiz pieces being restored at Santa Ana schools. An O’Cadiz mural at Monroe Elementary School is earmarked for restoration next. Santa Ana Unified School District officials say they recognize the district’s lapse in stewarding the murals over the years.
“Unfortunately, we have not always kept murals that had historical significance because we didn't understand,” said Robyn MacNair, art administrator for the school district. “We want to prevent that from happening again.”
A rich artistic legacy
Not all of J. Sergio O’Cadiz Moctezuma’s works have survived over the years, but he looms large in Orange County arts history.
“His work makes OC stare uncomfortably at what it never dreamed of when it came to its Mexicans: unapologetic. Proud. Talented. Successful,” wrote Los Angeles Times columnist and author Gustavo Arellano in an essay for a retrospective exhibit of the artist’s work and legacy at Cypress College in 2019. He quoted O’Cadiz from a Times article dating to the 1970s: ‘My idea of America,” the artist told the newspaper then, “is the right to be as Mexican as I want.’”
Roman O'Cadiz, the artist's grandson, sits among the products used to wash and revitalize the 1973 mural at Fremont Elementary in Santa Ana.
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Julie Leopo
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LAist
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O’Cadiz’s family shared recollections of the artist and his accomplishments with LAist.
Born in Mexico City in 1934, O’Cadiz attended the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) to study architecture, and along the way studied with legendary painter Diego Rivera.
He first established himself as an architectural designer, lending his talents to some of Mexico's landmark modernist construction projects and public works. According to his family these include the Museo Nacional de Antropología (Museum of Anthropology) in Chapultepec Park, on which he worked as part of the design team.
In 1961, O’Cadiz came to Orange County to work with renowned architect William Blurock, who is credited with designing hundreds of schools and colleges in California and around the world, along with other notable buildings. O’Cadiz joined Blurock’s firm as an architectural conceptual draftsman, his family said.
Orange County buildings that O’Cadiz contributed to include the Cypress College Library, home to one of his more famous concrete murals from 1967; the Santa Ana City Hall, home to a 1972 concrete relief mural; and Century High School in Santa Ana.
Though trained as a modernist, O’Cadiz introduced his expressive forms and diverse surfaces into the brutalist architecture of the era. His diverse body of work included paintings, drawings, graphic designs, sculptures and public murals.
Whitewashing history
But over the years, many of O’Cadiz’s works have been destroyed, most recently a well-known painted mural on Raitt Street in Santa Ana that had been deteriorating; after a solo artist tried to begin restoring it without permission, the property owner had it painted over in 2019.
In 2000, part of O’Cadiz’s Santa Ana City Hall relief mural was removed for a building renovation, his family said; sculptural fountains created for Fountain Valley's Civic Center in 1962 were eliminated and replaced with a prefab fountain.
A signature reading "Sergio O'Cadiz 73" is still visible on the mural at Fremont Elementary in Santa Ana.
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Julie Leopo
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LAist
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Another well-known loss was a 625-foot-long painted mural in Fountain Valley’s Colonia Juarez neighborhood, which O’Cadiz painted between 1974 and 1976. With the help of community members, the artist depicted the story of Colonia Juarez’s heritage and cultural history — images that ranged from the arrival of Mexican peasants in California at the time of the Mexican Revolution to a scene of police in riot gear dragging a Chicano youth to a patrol car.
That last scene, according to the family, cost him city financial support for the mural. O’Cadiz finished the mural with his own money, but couldn’t raise enough to seal it properly. It deteriorated over time, and the city destroyed and replaced the wall in 2001.
Rediscovering art that's 'like jazz'
Cypress College held its 2019 retrospective exhibition after completing a restoration of O’Cadiz’s monolithic Library Mural, outside what is now the Cypress College Complex building.
And as his Santa Ana school campus murals are being restored, local students have been learning about the artist.
In the weeks leading up to the restoration, the Santa Ana school district’s arts program and the artist coalition invited 20 SAUSD visual and performing arts high school students to learn about O’Cadiz.
Students attended a series of workshops, including a lecture from the artist’s daughter, Maria del Pilar O'Cadiz, who works as an associate program director in UCLA's engineering school. The students created their own art at Cal State Fullerton’s Grand Central Art Center, and took in a walking tour of remaining O’Cadiz murals in Santa Ana, along with other community murals.
Local Santa Ana artists work on restoring the O'Cadiz mural at Fremont Elementary.
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Julie Leopo
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LAist
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The restored Fremont Elementary mural will be officially unveiled Friday afternoon.
Meanwhile, the Santa Ana Community Artist(a) Coalition is getting ready for its next O’Cadiz project — the mural at Monroe Elementary, on which work starts next year. One of those working on the restoration will be multidisciplinary artist and coalition founding member Roger Eyes R. — a former Monroe student.
Eyes recalled the first time he saw O’Cadiz’s art as a child.
“I just remember walking up to the school and going, ‘What is that?'" he said. “I had never seen art like that, it just blew my mind. It was like jazz.”
Jason Wells
manages the daily news product that you hear and read every day.
Published September 9, 2026 5:13 PM
Smoke rises from a brush fire near the Getty Center on Sept. 9, 2026.
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CBS LA
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Topline:
Firefighters appeared to make quick progress against a brush fire the broke out Wednesday near the Getty Center.
What we know so far: As of 5 p.m., evacuation warnings had been issued for zones LFD-0895 and LF-0967, although the LAFD said no structures were immediately threatened as the water-dropping helicopters attacked the fire from above.
Read on ... for more on evacuations and weather conditions.
This is a developing story and will be updated. For the most up-to-date information about the fire you can check:
Firefighters appeared to make quick progress against a brush fire the broke out Wednesday near the Getty Center.
As of 5 p.m., evacuation warnings had been issued for zones LFD-0895 and LF-0967, although the LAFD said no structures were immediately threatened as the water-dropping helicopters attacked the fire from above.
Yusra Farzan
is covering general assignment news this week.
Published September 9, 2026 2:50 PM
Recent storm surges already have damaged Aliso Beach in Laguna Beach.
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Allen J. Schaben
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Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
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Topline:
Southern California is reeling from the destruction left behind by Tropical Storm Marie.
Damages in Dana Point: Six homes were red-tagged when high tides pummelled the coastline. Don Russel, the Capistrano Bay district general manager, said it's possible two other homes will be red-tagged (critically damaged) after high tide activity Tuesday night. Around five homes were yellow tagged (structural damage), he said. Workers are lining the shoreline with large boulders about the size of a small office desk when waters recede, but efforts to armor the beach have been hampered by the tides, Russel added.
Malibu felt the effects too: In Malibu, a large sinkhole formed on Sea Level Drive, prompting authorities to declare a local state of emergency. Five homes were red-tagged — meaning they are uninhabitable — and residents from around 30 homes were evacuated. Evacuees can find temporary shelter at the American Red Cross at Malibu High School.
Evac orders lifted: Evacuation orders were lifted in Long Beach, where the storm resulted in flooding. No homes were red-tagged, but the boardwalk between 63rd Place and 68th Place remains closed to the public.
Keep up with LAist.
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Jared Bennett
is the watchdog correspondent covering immigration and law enforcement at LAist.
Published September 9, 2026 2:49 PM
Officers from the Long Beach Police Department responded to a March 2025 report of an armed robbery just blocks away — the arrest that followed is now at the center of allegations the department concealed one officer's assault conviction.
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Megan Garvey
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LAist
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Topline:
A prominent attorney working on a low-level criminal case in Long Beach is alleging the police department there concealed an officer’s assault conviction for years — potentially calling into question the legitimacy of hundreds of cases.
What the defense uncovered: Scott Sanders, who exposed the Orange County jailhouse snitch scandal, is the court-appointed attorney in a case where the defense was trying to depose a Long Beach Police Department officer.
In a series of court motions, Sanders raised questions about why the officer arrested a man who was bald when the alleged victim described a man with long dreadlocks. When the defense tried to the subpoena the officer after he left the force, an investigator discovered that the now-former officer had been convicted in an assault case in Georgia while employed with the Long Beach Police Department.
Why that matters: In a landmark 1963 case, Brady v. Maryland, the U.S. Supreme Court established that law enforcement has a legal responsibility to disclose such information to defendants. Lack of disclosure could call into question the legitimacy of other cases involving the officer and the Long Beach Police Department.
Keep reading... for the full in-depth report on this case.
A prominent attorney working on a low-level criminal case in Long Beach is alleging the Police Department there concealed an officer’s assault conviction for years — potentially calling into question the legitimacy of hundreds of cases.
Jacobs is facing felony charges after Long Beach police said they found a small bag of cocaine tucked inside his sock while he was held at a jail following an arrest in March 2025. Jacobs has pleaded not guilty to the charge of bringing a controlled substance into a jail, which could carry a sentence of up to four years in prison.
At issue is the arrest that landed Jacobs in that cell in the first place — which Sanders argues in court filings was based on misrepresentations of now-former Long Beach police Officer Erik Suarez.
According to the defendant’s motion to dismiss, Suarez resigned from the Long Beach Police Department in June.
In a filing made Sept. 8, the defense attorney said an investigator discovered that Suarez had been convicted of a misdemeanor in the beating of a man outside a Waffle House in Marietta, Georgia in 2019. He had initially been charged with felony assault.
At that time, Suarez had served on the Long Beach force for two years.
LAist attempted to contact Suarez by calling a phone number connected to him in public records. A man who answered said he was not Suarez, but asked what the story was about and said he would check with Suarez about contacting LAist.
In a recent court filing seeking more information about Suarez’s conduct, Jacobs’ defense asserts that the Long Beach Police Department knew about the conviction, but never disclosed this information to defendants or the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
That’s information Jacobs’ attorney argues was potentially exculpatory, and that withholding it amounts to a major violation of criminal defense laws. In the landmark 1963 case Brady v. Maryland, the U.S. Supreme Court established that law enforcement has a legal responsibility to disclose such information to defendants. In Jacobs’ case, for example, the Sept. 8 filing said information about Suarez’s arrest and subsequent conviction could have been used to impeach him as a witness, as well as in other cases Suarez touched as a police officer.
The Long Beach Police Department has not yet responded to LAist’s emailed questions.
“The actions of the LBPD demonstrate a complete disregard to the danger Officer Suarez presented to the community and to the due process rights of defendants,” according to the motion to force disclosure. “The concealment of Officer Suarez's arrest and prosecution enabled [LBPD] to hide mandated discovery related to Officer Suarez’s conduct from what have likely been hundreds of defendants during the nearly seven-year period between the time of Officer Suarez’s August 2019 arrest and June 2026.”
Jacobs’ attorney alleges in the filing that Long Beach has an “unwritten policy” to keep information that could be used to impeach its officers in personnel files protected from public disclosure.
“The potential systemic consequences are enormous,” the filing argues.
“Not just to the individual,” she said, “but to the entire community.”
Lacey said the information about Suarez’s conviction should have been known to the prosecutors, so they could vet the reliability of the evidence presented by law enforcement, and turned over to the defense at the outset of the case.
A spokesperson for L.A. County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said in an emailed response to questions that they could not comment on what information they disclosed to Jacobs’ defense.
The District Attorney’s Office said it has a “collaborative relationship with the Long Beach Police Department,” and that the department does disclose material to prosecutors that is allowed under California law.
“Generally speaking, if our office had any such Brady material regarding an officer, we would have been legally obligated to turn that over to the defense.”
Lacey said if prosecutors did not have access to Suarez’s criminal record, the scope of people affected could be wide.
“We don't know how many cases are impacted by the potential unreliability of statements from the arresting law enforcement officer,” Lacey said. “This could impact people who have already pled guilty, who maybe are currently incarcerated, who are awaiting sentencing, or who are, like I said, incarcerated pretrial on other cases.”
In an interview with LAist, Sanders said the case raises three troubling issues: There’s the concealment of evidence leading to Jacobs' initial arrest, Suarez’s 2019 assault that was never disclosed, and the question of whether the Long Beach Police Department has concealed Brady material in other cases.
“If that's your modus operandi, we've got an enormous problem here,” Sanders said.
The underlying arrest that led to allegations about concealing an assault
Long Beach police responded to the intersection of 52nd Street and Atlantic Boulevard after a man reported being held at gunpoint, with the robber driving away in the van he was repossessing.
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Megan Garvey
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Just after 7:45 p.m. on March 18, 2025, Suarez and his partner Dylan Kelley responded to a call reporting a person with a gun at the intersection of 52nd Street and Atlantic Boulevard in Long Beach.
The alleged victim, identified in the filing by his last name, Ochoa, told the officers that he was attempting to repossess a black Dodge Sprinter van when someone threatened him with a gun, took the keys and drove off with the van.
Police later tracked down the van and detained Lonnie Jacobs and his brother, Lamar Jacobs.
According to court records, at the scene officers only presented Lonnie Jacobs to Ochoa.
Before seeing him, Ochoa stated that the suspect had braids, and body camera footage detailed in the court filing shows him gesturing to show long hair around his shoulders.
While looking at photos of the suspects in the van, Ochoa identified Lamar Jacobs. “That’s him! With the dreads!,” Ochoa is recorded saying on body camera footage.
Body camera footage shows Suarez confirming this description. “You said he had dreads? Can you remember if he has dreads?,” Suarez asks. The footage shows Ochoa nodding to confirm.
But Ochoa then identified Lonnie Jacobs in person, telling officers he recognized Lonnie Jacobs’ chain and ripped jeans as matching the person who pulled a gun on him earlier that night.
Jacobs’ court filings state that body camera footage shows both he and his brother wore the exact same chain, and they both wore ripped jeans that night.
In an interview with a detective for the District Attorney’s Office in August 2026 that is included in court filings, Ochoa said he was positive he identified a man with braids during the show-up.
Lonnie Jacobs in a still from a police body cam on the night of his arrest.
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Long Beach Police Department
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L.A. County Superior Court filing
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Lamar Jacobs in a still from the night his brother was arrested. An officer is handing him a chain identical to one around his neck.
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Long Beach Police Department
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L.A. County Superior Court filing
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His attorney argued this fact is inconsistent with the description and should have disqualified Jacobs as a suspect, or at least warranted more questioning. Furthermore, he alleges Suarez failed to correct another officer at the scene who questioned why Ochoa didn’t see the hairstyle of the man who allegedly pulled a gun on him.
By this point, Ochoa had already described the suspect as having braids to Suarez and Kelley, according to the body cam footage, but Suarez did not correct the other officer.
“He couldn’t tell by the haircut,” Suarez said, adding he said “everything happened too fast.”
Jacobs’ defense alleges Suarez’s response was “actively misleading his fellow officers.”
Furthermore, body camera footage also shows Suarez agreeing with another officer who expressed doubts that Lonnie Jacobs was the one who brandished the firearm.
A still of officers discussing the potential suspects on the night of Lonnie Jacobs' arrest. A court filing by his defense said officers, including Erik Suarez, expressed doubts that he was the correct person.
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Long Beach Police Department
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L.A. County Superior Court
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“Yeah I think it was him, too,” Suarez said, referring to Lonnie’s brother Lamar. Lamar Jacobs was never charged in connection with the case.
In filings to the court, the District Attorney’s Office said the officers had probable cause to arrest Jacobs because he was in the van described by the witness and matched at least some of the characteristics of the suspect.
How that led to the Georgia case coming to light
Once Jacobs’ defense reviewed the body cam footage, they began attempting to depose Suarez in the case. Although Lonnie Jacobs was never charged with threatening Ochoa, the arrest led to the charges of bringing drugs into a jail. If the initial arrest was illegitimate, the drug case would go away.
The court scheduled a hearing earlier this year to discuss the evidence, but the Long Beach Police Department told Jacobs’ defense that Suarez was out of the country.
The defense subpoenaed Suarez through the Police Department again and on June 15, the department told the team that Suarez had resigned.
An investigator for Jacobs’ defense searched for his address to subpoena him at home. That search, according to the court filing, uncovered the assault charges in Georgia in 2019, two years after he joined the police force in Long Beach.
In the motion to dismiss the charges against Jacobs, his defense argues it is “plausible” that Suarez resigned from the police force out of concern he may have been questioned about his alleged misconduct that led to Jacobs’ arrest.
“However, it is also now apparent that Officer Suarez has been living with another secret that may also have propelled a decision to abandon his police officer position,” the defense wrote.
Through discovery, Jacobs’ attorney said in court filings they learned that Suarez had traveled to Georgia where he watched the Atlanta Braves beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 4-3 on Aug. 17, 2019.
According to an incident report attached to court filings, a witness saw Suarez wearing a Dodgers jersey in a Waffle House, “talking shit” and arguing with the victim.
“Suarez then walked up to the table where the victim was seated and began punching him in the face until the victim was left unconscious on the ground,” the filing describes. According to the incident report and other filings from that case, Suarez continued to punch the victim while he was unconscious.
The most recent filing from Jacobs’ defense says Suarez was arrested walking away from the restaurant.
According to a description of the crime by Barry Morgan, a Cobb County assistant solicitor general, Suarez “caused the victim significant injuries, including orbital fracture, fracture of the maxillary sinus, traumatic orbital hematoma, and concussion.”
A memo details injuries caused by Erik Suarez in a 2019 assault. A grand jury indicted him on two felony counts. He later pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and served a year of probation.
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Cobb County Superior Court
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via L.A. County Superior Court filing
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“Defendant beat the victim while the victim was on the ground, apparently unconscious,” the description explains. “This should be aggravated battery.”
On April 1, 2021, a grand jury indicted Suarez on two felony counts of aggravated battery, accusing him of “seriously disfiguring” the victim and rendering his right eye useless.
Right before trial, Suarez pleaded guilty in November 2022 to reduced misdemeanor charges of battery, was ordered to stay away from the victim and Cobb County, and was ordered to take anger management classes. He was sentenced to 12 months, which he was allowed to serve on probation.
According to Jacobs’ defense, “Suarez’s actions in Georgia triggered immediate reporting responsibilities related to his employment” with the Long Beach Police Department.
The court filing explains that the Long Beach police manual requires officers to inform their watch commander when they are arrested by another department or under a criminal investigation.
It’s not yet clear when the department learned about Suarez’s arrest. But Jacobs' defense argues that if the department learned of the arrest between 2019 and 2026, “this would have clearly triggered Brady responsibilities in this case and numerous others.”
That information is relevant to the case against Jacobs, the filing argues, because “it is entirely logical that the same officer who beat a victim into unconsciousness and then cavalierly walked from the scene would just as thoughtlessly arrest a man for whom no probable cause existed — concealing that the victim previously identified another suspect who possessed features irreconcilable with the defendant’s culpability.”
When does law enforcement need to disclose misconduct?
While law enforcement has a legal requirement to proactively disclose Brady material that could help defendants build their case, California law exempts most police personnel records from disclosure, except under certain circumstances including findings of unnecessary use of force and misconduct while on the job.
Jacobs’ defense attorney, in the Sept. 8 filing, alleges Long Beach police purposefully placed evidence related to Suarez’s conviction in his personnel file, where it could be protected from disclosure.
He wrote this “enabled the agency to hide mandated discovery related to Officer Suarez’s conduct from what have likely been hundreds of defendants during the nearly seven-year period between the time of Officer Suarez’s August 2019 arrest and June 2026.”
Furthermore, the filing argues “there is every reason to believe that the hiding of Brady evidence extends far beyond Officer Suarez’s conduct and is the product of a long-established undisclosed policy designed to conceal Brady evidence.”
The filing points to a June 2021 news article wherein a spokesperson for the LBPD told reporters that it does not maintain a formal list of officers whose case involvement triggers Brady disclosures, but that it “continues to comply with its obligations to share such information.”
By that time, Suarez’s assault case was nearly two years old and, according to Jacobs’ defense, had never been disclosed.
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Erin Stone
covers climate and environmental issues in Southern California.
Published September 9, 2026 2:28 PM
Composted organic mulch on Lydia Whitlock's Altadena property helped prevent erosion after rain.
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Courtesy Lydia Whitlock
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Topline:
The El Niño climate pattern is here and, in Southern California, that can mean heavy rain in the winter. For the thousands of people who lost their homes and businesses in the Eaton and Palisades fires, there are some additional concerns.
Why it matters: Open dirt lots are prone to flooding and erosion, and that soil can still be contaminated with toxic metals, which can wind up downstream with rain.
Keep reading...for some tips and resources on how fire survivors can prepare.
The El Niño climate pattern is here and, in Southern California, that can mean heavy rain in the winter — which is why experts say now is the time to prepare and make sure you’re signed up for emergency alerts. But for the thousands of people who lost their homes and businesses in the Eaton and Palisades fires, there are some additional concerns.
With no trees or vegetation with roots to hold soil together, open dirt lots are prone to flooding and erosion. That soil can still be contaminated with toxic metals, which can wind up downstream with rain.
But there are ways survivors can prepare their properties, according to experts LAist spoke with, including understanding how water is flowing in your area, applying organic mulch to bare soil, and diverting water from structures and foundations.
Organic composted mulch ftw
Natalie Levy, a soil scientist with the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources, has been studying how organic mulch can help prevent erosion and reinvigorate soil on fire-scarred properties in Altadena since last year.
In a pilot project, she and a group of 14 Altadena property owners applied 1 to 2 inches of compost "erosion-control blankets" to their lots. The mixture needs to be a combination of fine-screened compost and larger, coarser, composted mulch.
"Think of this coarse composted mulch as a protective blanket," Levy said. "Your strategy here is you're reducing rainfall hitting bare soil directly. We're really trying to slow the movement of water down and give it more opportunity to infiltrate."
The larger pieces of mulch dissipate the energy of rainfall, while the finer compost can break down and help nourish the soil over time, Levy said.
The pilot analyzed 14 properties before and after significant rains last year. Levy found the properties with organic mulch had less erosion.
"Instead of a mass of soil that had fallen off of the edge of the parkway, we saw very clean curbs and less actual sediment in that storm drain," Levy said.
Lydia Whitlock was one of the participants in the pilot. A UC Master Gardener, she wanted to find more natural ways to clean her soil and prevent erosion after her home burned in the Eaton Fire. She worked closely with Levy and later contacted local native plant and nature-based stormwater capture experts, Hardy Californians, who connected her with a local landscaper to spread 645 tons of organic mulch across more than 128,000 square feet of her and her neighbors' properties.
A truck dumps organic composted mulch on Lydia Whitlock's property in Altadena.
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Courtesy Lydia Whitlock
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"Seeing how tended for and cared for the land looked as opposed to how it had looked as just bare dirt, it really felt like, oh, I'm taking a step towards coming back home," Whitlock said.
She was especially pleased with a neighbor’s property across the street, which had a steeper slope.
"After the first rains post-mulch, we noticed that she had almost no soil movement whatsoever," Whitlock said.
The county paid for the mulch to be applied for this pilot, but Whitlock said she hopes there's a broader effort and additional support from local authorities ahead of the rainy season, which officially starts mid-October. Many of the lots covered in the pilot have now been uncovered as rebuilding continues, Whitlock said.
"It was encouraging to get this done," she said, "but at the same time, 14 lots feels like a drop in the bucket compared to how many still-empty dirt lots there are around Altadena."
Resources and tips
Where to find organic composted mulch in the L.A. area:
When applying mulch on fire-affected properties, be sure to wear personal protective equipment — at least an N95 mask and gloves, and don’t bring dirty clothes and shoes into a home.
You can see Natalie Levy’s video on properly applying organic mulch here.
Fire survivors who are already working with a building contractor should speak with them about protecting the property from rain because some protection strategies may require crews and equipment
Hardy Californians will also provide phone consultations and assistance in prepping your property.
Other ways to prepare your property
Meanwhile, Parker Davis, founder of Hardy Californians, said there are other affordable ways to prep your property ahead of potential significant rain. The group has been working closely with fire survivors on natural soil remediation strategies, as well as erosion control and water capture.
In most cases, on properties with moderate to minimal sloping, he said, residents shouldn’t be all that concerned.
"In general, the moderately-sloped [properties], they can help themselves," Davis said.
However, Davis emphasized, people right against recently burned hillsides do need to prepare for more significant mudflows and potential evacuations.
"People should really start preparing now," he said. "Crews are going to get busy, and once things get wet, then there's not a whole lot you can do about it."
Here are some other ways to prepare your property, according to Davis:
Filling and placing sandbags now
Staggering chain link fences on sloped properties can help capture debris
Creating channels to redirect water from construction areas (though be sure to coordinate with neighbors if you can’t direct to a public storm drain)
Apply jute on exposed soil under mulch on hillsides. That can also be used in combination with natural material wattles (some are made with plastics, which Davis doesn’t recommend, as it can contaminate soil and water)
