Jacob Margolis
has covered the Palisades and Eaton fires since Day One.
Published January 9, 2026 5:00 AM
Nature is bouncing back
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LAist
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Topline:
Nature moves fast, especially when there are large patches of open soil, sunlight and water to feed recovery. And recovery is what we're starting to see — both in good and bad ways — a year after fires tore through the San Gabriel and Santa Monica mountains.
Why it matters: The destruction of last year’s January fires was devastating. Not just in how they leveled more than 16,000 structures and took at least 31 lives, but also how they stripped bare landscapes that many Southern Californians had become familiar with and had found solace visiting for decades.
What's next: Time will tell whether invasive or native plants will have the upper hand. But some early signs are encouraging.
Read on ... to see and learn about what's sprouting in Southern California's mountains.
The destruction of last year’s January fires was devastating. Not just in how they leveled more than 16,000 structures and took at least 31 lives, but also how they stripped bare landscapes that many Southern Californians had become familiar with and had found solace visiting for decades. Hillsides that we’d long seen covered in dense green chaparral and coastal sage scrub were turned to ash, with the charred carcasses of native plants left behind.
However, nature moves fast, especially when there are large patches of open soil, sunlight and water to feed recovery. And recovery is what we're starting to see — both in good and bad ways.
“Recovery begins in the first growing season,” said Jon Keeley, research scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey.
Listen
48:34
Where is LA a year after the fires? Checking in with survivors, rebuilding and nature
On recent trips to the Santa Monica and San Gabriel mountains, where the Palisades and Eaton fires burned a year ago, the signs are sprouting.
Manzanitas and oaks are regrowing from the bases of large plants that burned. Smaller, fast-growing showy pentstemon, hairy yerba santa and the pustule-causing poodle-dog bush are thriving now that competition has been removed.
But so are invasive plants like wild oats, bromes and mustard, which account for some of the green up.
What's growing?
A year after the fires, here are the plants you can see in the Eaton and Palisades burn scars.
Invasive Spanish brome growing in the Eaton Fire burn scar in December.
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Jacob Margolis
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LAist
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A year after the Eaton Fire, new growth is sprouting from the base of badly burned plants.
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Jacob Margolis
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Poodle-dog bush, often found on post-fire landscapes, grows in the San Gabriel Mountains in December. Don't touch!
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Jacob Margolis
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LAist
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Pines scorched by the Eaton Fire near the Mount Wilson radio towers in December.
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Jacob Margolis
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LAist
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Oak resprouts from the base of a larger plant that burned in the Eaton Fire.
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Jacob Margolis
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LAist
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Penstemon growing in the Eaton Fire burn scar in December.
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Jacob Margolis
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Dried out brome in the Eaton Fire burn scar in December.
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Jacob Margolis
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California sagebrush sprouts in the Palisades Fire burn scar in December.
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Jacob Margolis
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Invasive plants are popping up in rocky, often disturbed areas along trails burned by the Palisades Fire.
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Jacob Margolis
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Lupine seen growing in the Santa Monica Mountains in December.
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Jacob Margolis
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Goldenbush pops up among filaree in the Santa Monica Mountains in December 2025.
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Jacob Margolis
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Whether invasive species or natives take root long term depends on a variety of factors, including the age of the plants when they burned and how soon the area burns again, Keeley said.
Some of the Palisades Fire area hadn’t burned in about 60 years, according to state records, which may mean healthy native-plant recovery over the long term.
Walking the area recently, I saw native California sage brush, goldenbush and long leaf bush lupine, with some invasive grasses mixed in.
The Santa Monica Mountains, photographed from Mullholland Drive, on Jan. 21, 2025, just weeks after the Palisades Fire.
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Jacob Margolis
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In December 2025, the Santa Monica Mountains are green again, though non-native grasses fill quite a bit of the open space.
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Jacob Margolis
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Higher up in the San Gabriels, where the Eaton Fire burn scar has some overlap with the Bobcat (2020) and Station (2009) fires, native plants that have weathered repeated blazes may struggle to recover.
“If the fire occurs in areas that had burned within the last 15 to 25 years, then there's a good chance you're going to lose species," Keeley said. "And if you lose those species, they're replaced by non-native grasses.”
When fire occurs too frequently, native plant seedbanks can be destroyed, making recovery unlikely.
“ We've looked now at 65, 75, something like that, sites around the state over five years, and the pattern is pretty common,” Keeley said.
The nonnative grasses that replace native shrubs can often dry out and catch fire more easily than heartier natives. Shortening the interval between when wildfires can spread across a landscape, further challenging recovery. It’s a pattern that’s been documented across California — from the deserts to the mountains to the coastal hillsides.
Hope for native plants — and hard work
Even where invasive species have taken over, the hard work of conservation can help bring back natives. But fire is an ever-present threat, as Tree People learned.
For the past four years, the environmental conservation organization has been working to help reestablish native species near Castaic Lake. The work was arduous, with volunteers removing invasive plants across a 25-acre site and planting native oaks. And they were seeing good progress — until Jan. 22, 2025, when the Hughes Fire charred more than 10,000 acres, including their work area.
Oak sprouts from the base of a slim trunk in March 2025.
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Alyssa Walker
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Tree People
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A young oak puts out new growth in September 2025.
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Alyssa Walker
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“We brought the team out, and everyone was just kind of speechless,” said Alyssa Walker, Tree People’s associate director of conservation.
The site where they’d planted thousands of trees and worked for years was devoid of green.
But they didn’t give up. They watered seedlings they thought had the best chance of survival.
It's working.
They’re seeing the best recovery in areas where they did the most invasive plant clearance, Walker said. The baby oaks have also done remarkably well, as fire-adapted oak trees often do. And sawtooth golden bush, sunflowers, yerba santa and sugarbush, among others, are all making a comeback.
In the areas that had a lower density of invasive prior to the fire, native chamise can be seen regrowing about a year after the Hughes Fire.
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Alyssa Walker
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Tree People
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In an area dominated by invasive annual plants, invasive plants have come back.
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Alyssa Walker
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“We've seen things grow back, if not to their existing size, like beyond,” Walker said.
Native plants in areas that had a higher density of invasive plants before the fire are growing slower because of all of the extra competition.
What about mountain lions?
This uncollared mountain lion's habitat appears to be east of the 405 Freeway. Video captured on the morning of Sept. 7, 2019, shows it chasing P-61 in the area east of the freeway.
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National Park Service
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Recent data gathered by the National Park Service in the Santa Monica Mountains area shows that since the Palisades Fire, at least one mountain lion, P-125, appears to be avoiding the burned area.
How other mountain lions are behaving is not yet clear, but the Woolsey Fire — which burned nearly 100,000 acres, including in the Santa Monica Mountains — offers insights into lion behavior after large fires.
After that 2018 fire, mountain lions favored areas that hadn’t burned and still had dense vegetative cover they could use to stay hidden and stalk deer, according to tracking data gathered by the Park Service over 15 months after the Woolsey Fire.
The fire squeezed the territorial cats into even smaller areas that are already fragmented by urban development.
“When you look at their post-fire behavior, because so much of the Santa Monicas were burned … they engaged in some riskier behaviors than they may have beforehand,” said Seth Riley, chief wildlife ecologist for the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.
That included crossing roads, one of the deadlier activities for mountain lions in Southern California. As was the case with P-61, who lived in the eastern Santa Monica Mountains.
P-61 crossed the 405 Freeway in the Sepulveda Pass, which is the first and only time that Riley and his colleagues had seen one of their collared lions cross that freeway. When the male lion reached Bel Air, he encountered another male lion, which chased him up a tree. Twenty minutes later, P-61 was killed by a car — crossing the 405 Freeway again.
Of the 11 lions that Riley and his colleagues were tracking around the Woolsey Fire, three died. P-61 was one.
P-74, they assume, got caught in the fire. Another, P-64, who lived in the Simi Hills and fled when the fire came through, was found dead two weeks later with badly burned paws. He chose to head back into the burned area instead of fleeing into neighborhoods full of people, Riley said.
When will normal return?
The Santa Monica Mountains, bisected by Mulholland Drive, about a year after the Palisades Fire. The area on the left was burned by the fire, while the area on the right, full of native vegetation, has not burned since 1944, according to Cal Fire records.
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I met Lawrence Szabo from Venice on a trail in the Santa Monica Mountains in mid-December. He was looking out across a canyon that had started to green up after heavy rains. We were just down the way from an oak tree that serves as a landmark for hikers and cyclists.
“ I've always viewed that oak tree as kind of my chapel,” he said. “I think that's what was the heaviest part of the fires. Not knowing whether it was still there. And then, when I turned the corner the first time and I saw it there, it pulled a tear, and I felt like we could keep going.”
Over the next 10 years, assuming invasive plants don’t take over, native plants will repopulate and spread. And in several decades our hillsides could once again be filled with the dense and beautiful chaparral and coastal sage scrub many of us grew up with.
Anjanette Gile
is a 2026 summer news intern and senior at Cal State L.A.
Published July 29, 2026 5:22 PM
Glendale's new playground lets kids climb on and slide down a giant owl.
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Anjanette Gile / LAist
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Topline:
The city of Glendale's newest playground is built in the shape of a 12-foot-tall owl, with structures that look like large unblinking eyes and giant outstretched wings. The playground, which opened Wednesday, is one of two set to open in the city this summer.
Details: The new playground at Mayors Bicentennial Park, located at 1987 Loma Vista Dr., is an example of how the city is opting for more unusual structures, like animals or vehicles, instead of the usual jungle gyms.
Kids can slide down the tail of the owl and climb over its wings. If they slip, new rubber flooring installed at the site can catch their fall.
The backstory: The previous playground at the park was 19 years old, according to city authorities.
Glendale resident and mother of two Desseri Roberts said she had been hoping for an upgrade.
“I’ve been coming to this park since I was in high school,” she said. “I’ve just kind of been waiting for it to get back to a place I can come and hang out with my kids.”
What’s next: In August, Glendale is expected to open another playground at Adams Square Mini Park, located at 1020 East Palmer Ave. That one will be shaped like a truck, according to the city.
Both projects are funded by L.A. County’s Measure A, a parcel tax voters approved in 2016 to raise money for parks and recreation facilities. The city budgeted $702,000 in Measure A funds for the Mayors Bicentennial Park structure.
Sammy Marvin
is a summer 2026 LAist intern and a junior at Loyola Marymount University.
Published July 29, 2026 3:23 PM
Plastic trash gradually degrades into tiny particles that spread around the environment and ultimately into human bodies.
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Alistair Berg
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Digital Vision via Getty Images
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Topline: Microplastics in the environment have become a growing concern for many scientists and activists alike. The Environmental Protection Agency just proposed a new program for testing various substances in our drinking water, but critics note that microplastics didn't make the list.
Why this matters: More than 200 organizations, governors and other leaders have urged the EPA to add microplastics to the list. What's the challenge? Testing isn't that easy. The EPA argues that there's not yet a validated method for testing our drinking water.
Read on ... to learn more about local water departments' response and how you can weigh in.
When you’re drinking a glass of water, you might not think about the potential for microplastics floating around inside the cup.
Earlier this month, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed new standards for monitoring our drinking water, a move that lays the groundwork for future safety regulation.
More than 250 health professionals added their names to a May letter to the EPA that called microplastics "a public health crisis that can no longer be ignored."
“It is estimated that the average person consumes 4,000 or more microplastic particles annually from drinking water alone,” the letter continued.
The EPA released a statement to LAist Wednesday saying the agency "acknowledges the interest in and concern for microplastics in drinking water" and is in the process of taking steps to prioritize the needed research.
Why it matters
The proposed new testing program would require public water facilities to test for a list of up to 30 chemicals and contaminants such as pesticides and PFAS — dubbed "forever chemicals" — which are found in products like nonstick cookware.
Water safety advocates say it’s important to test for those chemicals because they can seep into water systems by runoff, factory leaching and landfill leakages. Experts say testing the substances helps identify what contaminants pose a health risk, and how much is present in water systems.
Safety advocates say they want microplastics added to the list because research has shown that ingesting them is potentially harmful to humans.
Among them is California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who is part of a 14-state coalition petitioning to add microplastics to the proposed new screening list, known formally as the UCMR 6.
“Microplastics clearly warrant further monitoring and regulation due to their prevalence throughout the environment and the rapidly growing evidence of their negative impact on the environment and public health,” Bonta and others stated in a joint letter to the EPA last month.
So what’s the challenge?
It takes time to develop, test and approve methods for testing certain contaminants in water so that public systems can uniformly and consistently measure them. With microplastics, the research just isn’t there yet, according to EPA officials.
“There is no validated EPA or consensus drinking water analytical method with the proper quality control data, accuracy, and precision that could be used for UCMR 6,” agency officials said in a filing published early this month in the Federal Register.
What this means locally
The good news for Southern California residents concerned about microplastics is that the state has pulled ahead of the federal government in microplastic screenings. A law passed in 2018, Senate Bill 1422, called on regulators to implement a testing plan for microplastics in large community water systems.
Implementation of the law is still in its early stages, so only certain providers are required to test for microplastics. The state chose departments based on water supply, size of agency and forms of treatment.
Once more analysis is done with these agencies, the law is designed to expand its reach to all water departments.
The Irvine Ranch Water District is one of the agencies selected by the state to perform testing.
Although validated methods have not yet emerged, Jim Colston, the district's director of water quality and regulatory compliance, said he is confident that the area’s water is safe.
“There are many pervasive sources of microplastics in the environment, but the public water supply has not been shown to be a significant source,” Colston said.
LAist spoke to authorities at several Southern California water departments, and all said that consumers should not worry about their drinking water.
“Our drinking water is safe,” said Pat Versluis, director of water quality for the Orange County Water District, which serves 2.5 million people in the central and North Orange County area.
“I'd say the state of California's process, it's been methodical for several years," Versluis said. "They seem to be getting closer to a more refined sample collection, sample analysis, and kind of process for monitoring water sources.
"And we're following that closely.”
Where you come in
The UCMR 6 program still needs to be finalized by the end of the year.
Once it goes into effect in January 2028, the list of substances will be tested in a three-year sample period. The process of examining the research can then take two or more years after that.
If you want to weigh in on microplastics testing, you can contact local government representatives or the EPA. (Food and Water Watch, a nonprofit advocacy group, provides templates for people who don’t know where to begin.)
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The Art Theater on Fourth Street in Long Beach Tuesday July 28, 2026.
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Thomas R. Cordova
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Long Beach Post
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Topline:
The inaugural Long Beach Film Festival will run Aug. 29–30, mooring its first-year slate at the historic Art Theatre on Retro Row with four feature films, multiple short film blocks and industry panel discussions.
The backstory: The idea, according to organizers, came together exactly where one assumes — a kids’ birthday party at a Signal Hill playground. Festival board president Teodor Todorov struck up a conversation with local filmmaker Hunter Stiebel after spotting him with a Sundance T-shirt.
More details: The festival’s four main narrative features span genres from psychological horror to romantic science fiction. Leading the slate is “Downbeat,” a 91-minute South by Southwest entry directed by Danny Madden (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”) that follows a musician caught between personal relationships and artistic ambition. The lineup also includes “Ugly Cry," a 94-minute psychological horror film directed by Emily Robinson that explores an actor’s dangerous obsession with perfection following a devastating audition.
Read on... for more on the new festival in Long Beach.
For a city that has more than its fair share of movie shoots — from Barbie’s high-speed chase along Chestnut Place to serving as Hollywood’s budget-friendly stand-in for Miami and San Diego — it’s high time that Long Beach sets aside time to celebrate it.
The inaugural Long Beach Film Festival will run Aug. 29–30, mooring its first-year slate at the historic Art Theatre on Retro Row with four feature films, multiple short film blocks and industry panel discussions.
The idea, according to organizers, came together exactly where one assumes — a kids’ birthday party at a Signal Hill playground. Festival board president Teodor Todorov struck up a conversation with local filmmaker Hunter Stiebel after spotting him with a Sundance T-shirt.
At first, Stiebel refused; it’s difficult to put together, he said, and hardly worth the headache. “It’s so much work,” he continued. But he quickly reconsidered, thinking how he’s always wanted a stronger local cinephile presence since moving to the city. “How best to find it rather than make it yourself?” said Stiebel, who now serves as the festival’s director of programming.
The festival’s four main narrative features span genres from psychological horror to romantic science fiction. Leading the slate is “Downbeat,” a 91-minute South by Southwest entry directed by Danny Madden (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”) that follows a musician caught between personal relationships and artistic ambition. The lineup also includes “Ugly Cry,” a 94-minute psychological horror film directed by Emily Robinson that explores an actor’s dangerous obsession with perfection following a devastating audition.
Rounding out the feature selections are “Again Again,” a time-loop romantic sci-fi feature written by and starring Mia Moore and executive produced by Lilly Wachowski (“The Matrix”) about a woman facing the terrifying uncertainty of a new day after escaping a decade-long loop, and “Rescued,” written, directed by, and starring local filmmaker DJ Hale alongside Lindsay Shaw (“Pretty Little Liars”). There will also be four 90-minute segments of short films.
Filmed on location in Long Beach, “Rescued” explores homelessness and redemption through the story of a man whose life transforms after adopting a stray dog.
Hale, who based the movie on experiences faced by himself, his friend and producer Dominique Smith, and his mother, says it’s “a tremendous honor” to show the film here. “It feels perfect, it feels like it was supposed to happen,” he said.
Moving to Long Beach in 2020, he started working on the film in late 2022 and finished in January after an eight-month hiatus to get money for production. “(Smith) just randomly got this huge settlement check from a work injury that happened years ago, and he selflessly just put a big chunk of that to restoring the project,” Hale said.
He hopes the film can dispel myths and misconceptions about being homeless, and remind people that anyone can fall into homelessness.
“A lot of times, it’s just people who are literally living paycheck to paycheck, and then something happens that is unforeseen that causes them to get behind,” Hale said. “Hours can get cut, they could lose a job, get sick for an extended period of time, so on and so forth. … It’s just a snowball effect.”
The timing of the festival — in the dead of summer and amid a boon in indie theater attendance — almost couldn’t be better. Kerstin Kansteiner, vice president of the nonprofit Art Theatre, said the venue has a lot more flexibility with its schedule in the summer as opposed to the fall and winter, when major films are shown on studio-mandated terms leading up to the awards season.
And there’s a strong appetite for independent film, she added, saying the theater has had a strong increase in ticket sales she says is tied to event programming over the past couple of years.
“This new generation is embracing film, but it’s more than just film. … I think what they’re looking for is community and an event-based experience,” Kansteiner said, adding that summer programming allows the theater to run unique screenings, Q&A sessions, and local festivals like the Cambodia Town Film Festival and QFilmFest. “It’s been very, very successful.”
Where other festivals, including new ones in Glendale and Santa Monica, have relied on grants for funding, the Long Beach festival is seeded mainly by small monetary gifts and in-kind donations, with an almost entirely volunteer-based workforce.
Organizers say they want the festival, in years ahead, to become a happy medium between a benefit for local talent and a must-stop in the region to see films that dominate the festival circuit.
“A festival that feels both world-class and deeply rooted in Long Beach,” Stiebel said. “So, at this time when film and TV production has been fleeing California, Los Angeles, even the United States … we feel that it’s time that we are able to plant a flag here locally.”
Ahead of the August weekend, festival organizers will host a fundraiser Wednesday at Wine on Second in Naples. The event features a preview of “Rescued,” along with wine and hors d’oeuvres. Proceeds will support LBFF StoryLab, a local youth filmmaking initiative.
Individual screening tickets start at $10, while $150 VIP passes offer access to an opening night party at the Queen Mary, filmmaker mixers, panel sessions, and the festival’s VIP lounge. Tickets and schedule details are available on the festival website.
Yusra Farzan
reports on issues affecting current and future college students, their families and communities.
Published July 29, 2026 12:55 PM
Students at UCLA on the Janss steps.
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Ashley Balderrama
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LAist
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Topline:
The University of California announced Wednesday they have offered admissions to a record number of California students. Around 102,000 residents were offered seats, around 1,400 more than last year. UC also admitted around 29,400 California community college transfers, another record high, officials said.
What that looks like in SoCal: In Southern California, UCLA offered seats to 57% of California residents who applied, UC Irvine 52% and UC Riverside 87%. Around 2,500 admitted California students at UCLA are first generation college students.
Why it matters: UCs increasing California student admissions is tied to a deal the university system struck with lawmakers. The deal, UC’s Multi Year Compact, requires UCs to increase in-state students by 1% every year and make it easier for community college students to transfer in. In turn, the state would increase its funding to UCs to make up for the loss of revenue from non-state students – about a 5% increase every year. The University of California has said it's on track to meet that goal.
University of California officials announced Wednesday they have offered admission to a record number of California students. Around 102,000 residents were offered seats, about 1,400 more than last year. UC also admitted about 29,400 California community college transfers, another record high, officials said.
In Southern California, UCLA offered seats to 57% of California residents who applied, UC Irvine 52% and UC Riverside 87%. Around 2,500 of the admitted California students at UCLA are first-generation college students.
“For generations, a University of California education has been one of the state’s most powerful engines of social mobility, opening doors for talented students from every background and region of the state,” said UC President James B. Milliken. “The record number of California students we’re welcoming this year reflects UC's enduring commitment to expanding opportunity while preparing the next generation of leaders, innovators, educators and public servants."
UC has also increased its offer of admissions to out-of-state students and international students.
Why it matters
UCs increasing California student admissions is tied to a deal the university system struck with lawmakers after facing increased complaints from parents and students that the top UC schools — UCLA, UC Berkeley and UC San Diego — were so hard to get into.
The deal, UC’s Multi-Year Compact, requires UCs to increase in-state students by 1% every year and make it easier for community college students to transfer. In turn, the state would increase its funding to UCs to make up for the loss of revenue from non-state students — about a 5% increase every year.
The University of California has said it's on track to meet that goal.
Race and ethnicity in admissions
Earlier this year, the Justice Department accused UCLA of “intentionally” selecting students based on their race, favoring Black and Latino students. This is part of a larger trend of the Department of Justice pursuing legal action against the University of California in President Donald Trump’s second term, including suing UCLA over allegations that the university allowed antisemitism on campus. The Justice Department also unsuccessfully demanded a range of concessions to bring UCLA more in line with its ideology, in addition to more than $1 billion in fines. The administration also tried to freeze the university’s research funding, prompting an effort to have the state of California be a backstop.
But admission trends in race stayed mostly the same as in previous years.
Around 6% of California students offered admissions at UC identify as Black, proportional to the state’s Black population, while around 38% of the in-state admitted students are Latino. Around 40% of the state’s population is Latino.
Around 18% of the in-state students offered admissions identified as white and 33% Asian.
