The Brief

California faces stark income inequality, its jobs are increasingly automated and the degrees from its state’s universities are no longer the asset they once were.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has a plan for all of it. Today at a press conference in Modesto, more than a year and a half after he first announced this initiative, he released the full Master Plan for Career Education, setting a new course for the state’s job training and education programs.

“This has been a point of pride,” he said. “This is long overdue.”

Yet certain aspects of the plan will need approval from the Legislature, and it’s not clear whether that will happen. Legislators and the Legislative Analyst’s Office have criticized the governor’s new proposals as “unproven” and “unclear.”

The plan highlights ongoing efforts, such as the state’s new education data system, its recent reforms to financial aid, and the expansion of skills-based learning at community colleges, known as competency-based education. That data system is behind schedule, and the financial aid reforms only arose after CalMatters wrote about the governor’s failure to implement them. Seven community colleges are moving forward with competency-based education, per the governor’s wishes — but at one school, Madera Community College, the reforms have stalled due to faculty opposition.

The governor’s career plan also includes three new budget proposals for this year, which could cost taxpayers over $105 million if they’re enacted:

• A digital “career passport” that will serve as a new kind of resume for students and workers
• More money to community colleges so they can offer college credit for students’ work experiences, a process known as “credit for prior learning”
• A new state body that will bring together education and workforce leaders to create “statewide goals” and help coordinate the distribution of state and federal grants 

All of these budget proposals require the Legislature’s approval, including from Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi, a Torrance Democrat and the chair of the Assembly’s education committee. At today’s press conference, Muratsuchi helped introduce Newsom and stood behind him, listening attentively, for most of the morning.

“I’m not familiar with any of the critiques,” said Newsom at the press conference in response to a question about the Legislature’s concerns. He then thanked Muratsuchi for coming to the event. “He’s a big champion of this broader effort.”

In an interview yesterday, Muratsuchi said he appreciates the governor for prioritizing career technical education, but he said the governor's plan is “missing an opportunity for significant reform” including the opportunity to streamline state funding.

What actually is a ‘career passport’?

The governor’s plan puts hiring practices at the forefront. “While many employers are interested in evaluating both academic credentials and skills earned outside the classroom, very few employers are adopting this approach,” the plan writes. “One barrier is lack of access to validated information that will help them evaluate candidates based on their skills.”

Enter the “career passport”: an online tool that allows workers to present their academic transcripts and their professional skills in a format that’s independently verified by universities and employers.

“When I go in to create my LinkedIn profile, I can write whatever I want about myself,” said Sharon Leu, an executive in residence at Jobs for the Future, a workforce nonprofit. “I can write that I have a Ph.D. in astrophysics from Harvard and you would not know.”

To be a teacher, for example, applicants usually must prove they have a bachelor’s degree, certain kinds of professional experience, and a state license. “All the data is owned by different people,” Leu said. “It’s scattered.”

Sometimes, accessing academic and professional records can take months — and those administrative delays translate into delays in hiring, she said.

The state has already embarked on a similar initiative to create authenticated, virtual records, she added: California’s mobile driver’s license pilot, which currently allows license holders to fly from certain airports or to buy liquor using a virtual ID. About 1.1 million people have already downloaded their licenses, according to Ronald Ongtoaboc, a public information officer with the DMV. He said the project was funded through a one-time, $10 million investment in the 2021–22 fiscal year.

In terms of costs, Leu said she didn’t think “the education project would be more than that.”

In his plan, Newsom is asking for $50 million for the digital career passport.

The Legislative Analyst’s Office wrote that the governor’s proposal doesn’t address how career passports would be better than using a resume and social networking websites, such as LinkedIn. The “proposed approach is largely unproven,” the office wrote…. “Moreover, it is difficult to assess whether the proposed funding level is reasonable for the proposal, as the administration has not explained how it arrived at the $50 million cost estimate.”

At the press conference, Newsom pointed to efforts in Alabama, which has rolled out a similar career passport. The Alabama career passport took about five years to develop, and launched in 2023.

A ‘disincentive to work together’

While the Legislature and governor may not agree on the solution, they agree on the problem: the state’s job training programs lack coordination. They’re “Balkanized,” Muratsuchi has said repeatedly. In this convoluted system, some people, such as first-generation college students and English-language learners, often struggle to figure out which job training programs are right for them or how to qualify, the plan says.

Newsom proposes using $5 million in state dollars to create a new coordinating body that would bring together college and K-12 leaders, as well as those from the state’s workforce agency. The body would use labor market data to align programs with demand, and it would “coordinate implementation of specific federal and state programs,” the plan says.

Stewart Knox, the secretary for California’s Labor and Workforce Development Agency, said some of that coordinating work is already underway, locally. The state allocated $250 million in 2021 to help K-12 districts, local colleges, and job training programs work together. That money has created programs like Sacramento’s K-16 Collaborative.

In an interview, Muratsuchi said he wants the state’s career plan to go further and streamline the various grants that fund career training. In the current model, different agencies — such as community colleges, K-12 school districts, adult schools and job centers — are incentivized to apply for their own grants, effectively competing against one another. State funding provides “a disincentive to work together,” he said.

The Legislative Analyst’s Office has its own critiques of the governor’s coordinating body, according to a summary of its remarks in a recent hearing agenda: “It is unclear whether a lack of existing coordination is the result of the lack of a venue for such coordination or due to differences in goals between the various workforce and education agencies.”

The Government Operations Agency, a state agency focused on innovation, would ultimately house the coordinating body, if the Legislature decides to fund it. During the hearing, Justyn Howard, the deputy secretary of the agency, noted that the coordinating body would lack authority to make most of the changes it recommends.

Sen. Roger Niello, a Roseville Republican, offered his own concern at the hearing. “This governor has less than two years left in his term,” Niello said. “We’re embarking on a significant organizational initiative without knowing what the next governor is going to think about this.”

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond said he was blindsided by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposal Thursday to curtail the superintendent’s duties and he disagrees with it, although it’s unclear what he can do to stop it.

“Tony Thurmond is proud and grateful to work with Gov. Newsom. They’re both champions of public education,” said Elizabeth Sanders, spokeswoman for the California Department of Education, which Thurmond heads. Sanders was speaking on behalf of the superintendent.

“Unfortunately, on this particular issue they are not aligned.”

In his State of the State address on Thursday, Newsom proposed shifting oversight of the Department of Education, a 2,000-employee state agency, from the superintendent to the State Board of Education. The move would concentrate more power over K-12 schools with the governor, who appoints the school board.

The superintendent would remain an elected position, but with diminished and less defined duties.

Referencing a December report from Policy Analysis for California Education, Newsom’s aim is to simplify California’s convoluted system of K-12 school governance. Currently, education leadership comes from the governor, the Legislature, the State Board of Education, the superintendent and the Department of Education — who may or may not have the same vision for how to best run schools and teach children. At the local level, school boards and county offices of education also have a good deal of power over budgets and day-to-day school operations.

The result of the many-headed leadership structure is that schools often don’t know which policies to follow, according to the PACE report. Guidelines can be contradictory, redundant or just plain incoherent, researchers found.

A slew of education advocacy groups have supported Newsom’s proposal, saying it will clarify a system that’s been confusing and inefficient for a century. California is one of only a handful of states with such an education governance model.

‘Unnecessary disruption’

Thurmond’s staff had a few hints that an announcement might be forthcoming, but otherwise was caught off guard by Newsom’s proposal, Sanders said. They also hadn’t talked to PACE researchers about their report, although PACE staff said they reached out to the department prior to the report's publication.

Thurmond questions the point of the change, Sanders said.

“It’s unclear how this would benefit students and families,” Sanders said. “It’s an unnecessary disruption. … We should be staying focused on creating results for students.”

If the governor really wanted to help schools, he should pour more money into K-12 education. The Department of Education has been underfunded for years, she noted, and schools could use more funds for initiatives like tutoring and mandatory kindergarten.

John Affeldt, managing attorney at Public Advocates, a nonprofit law firm focused on education, also questioned the value of Newsom’s proposal. It would take power away from the voters and give it to the governor, which might be great if the governor supports public education but may backfire if a governor doesn’t, he said.

“It might improve the governance structure a bit, but I’m not sure it’s worth the tradeoff,” Affeldt said. “It might be a lot of political theater for not much real change.”

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

Gov. Gavin Newsom painted a rosy picture of California’s fiscal future during his State of the State address Thursday. Flashing top-line numbers, the Democratic governor touted billions of dollars more in revenue, proposed new investments in education and pledged more toward the state’s reserves and pension debt.

But that was a one-sided story.

It’s not clear whether Newsom will forecast a budget deficit for the 2026-27 fiscal year, how big it will be and whether closing the gap would require painful spending cuts to core services like child care, food assistance and Medi-Cal, the state’s health care coverage for low-income residents, especially as federal funding diminishes.

Yet Newsom will be absent from his last annual budget proposal presentation Friday, when details of his spending plan will be unveiled, leaving his Department of Finance Director Joe Stephenshaw and Chief Deputy Director of Budgets Erika Li to field those questions.

Newsom’s forecast will likely be far sunnier than the grim outlook by the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office, which in November projected an $18 billion deficit despite higher-than-expected tax revenue thanks to a booming AI industry. A shortfall of that size would require long-term fixes, although state leaders had relied on Band-Aids such as accounting maneuvers, internal borrowing and withdrawals from the state’s reserves to balance the books in past years.

But according to Newsom, California will have a $248.3 billion general fund next year — $13 billion higher than his office predicted in June.

Newsom also touted Thursday that the state would have $42.3 billion more in revenue than forecast last year. But that figure is for a three-year span, state Department of Finance spokesperson H.D. Palmer told CalMatters.

The omission of the cumulative nature of the $42 billion makes Newsom’s speech “troubling,” said Sen. Roger Niello, a Roseville Republican and vice chair of the Senate Budget Committee.

“That would be an intentional misrepresentation of the fact,” he said.

Nonetheless, Newsom teased multiple new proposals with unknown price tags or timelines, such as fully funding the state’s universal transitional kindergarten program and providing universal before and after-school programs at elementary schools. He also proposed spending $1 billion to add high-need community schools and redirecting $1 billion in Proposition 1 mental health funds annually for housing and homelessness.

The governor briefly nodded to “long-term structural challenges,” proposing a $7.3 billion deposit to the reserve fund, roughly the amount the state withdrew last year, whichwould bring the rainy day fund balance to roughly $21 billion. He also proposed to spend $11.8 billion over the next few years to pay down the state’s pension debt, including $3 billion in next year’s budget.

Some Democratic lawmakers struck a cautious tone while largely blaming President Donald Trump for withholding funds from Californians in need.

“California will not be able to fill the holes that have been left by the federal government,” said newly elected Senate President Pro Tem Monique Limón, a Santa Barbara Democrat. “We have to go back and look (at) what is feasible.”

Sen. John Laird, a Santa Cruz Democrat and the new chair of the Senate Budget Committee, warned that the high revenue projection indicates a bubble. Laird, who was elected to the state Assembly in 2002 after the 2000 dot-com bubble burst, said he’s concerned the AI-driven boom may not last.

“I think everybody agrees that this level of revenue can’t be maintained, but how big is the bubble? That’s probably the question,” he told CalMatters.

The Legislature must start chipping away at the long-term structural deficit this year instead of punting the problem, he said.

“We’re gonna have to do a piece of it,” he said. “We can’t go into next year with a $30 or $37 billion shortfall, because the reserves amount doesn’t get anywhere near that.”

Continued fight over homelessness funding

Newsom has tussled with counties over homelessness funding for years as political pressure to resolve the state’s homeless crisis continues to mount. Newsom has blamed counties for failing to deliver results despite his $24 billion investment over the years. Only a portion of the funding goes to county agencies and there is no dedicated annual funding to fight homelessness.

On Thursday, Newsom again bashed counties for the problem while attributing a drop in unsheltered homeless people last year to his statewide programs. In the same breath, he also proposed to redirect “$1 billion in annual mental health funding to housing and treatment for people living on the streets” under Proposition 1, a voter-approved bond primarily for mental health beds and supportive housing.

“No more excuses — it’s time to bring people off the streets, out of encampments, into housing, into treatment. Counties need to do their job!” Newsom said, drawing applause from legislators.

It wasn’t immediately clear how he plans to allocate those dollars. He did not mention any funding for the Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention program, the state’s main homelessness funding source.

The California State Association of Counties, which represents all 58 counties and has lobbied for an annual allocation of $1 billion in HHAP funding, was displeased.

“Playing a shell game with existing funds is no substitute for the most successful program addressing homelessness at the local level,” said association CEO Graham Knaus. “Why on Earth would the state abdicate its responsibility and allow homelessness to soar again?”

Newsom’s plan also startled county behavioral health service providers, who rely on Prop. 1 dollars for services.

“While these one-time bricks and mortar investments are promising, the $1 billion in funding for ongoing housing subsidies under Proposition 1 comes at the expense of redirected mental health treatment and prevention programs,” said Michelle Doty Cabrera, executive director of the County Behavioral Health Directors Association.

No mention of Medi-Cal

Newsom also gave next to no detail on the outlook for Medi-Cal — the state’s most expensive program with a $200 billion budget and therefore an attractive target for potential cuts. He didn’t even name the program in his speech.

The governor slammed Trump for passing a federal budget that could kick 1.8 million Californians off their insurance and raise the premiums for another 2 million. The state would have to spend at least $1.3 billion more than previously expected next year just to implement the federal law, the LAO previously estimated.

Assemblymember Mia Bonta, an Oakland Democrat who chairs the Assembly Health Committee, said the state must “use the bully pulpit” to fight the federal government, find ways to lower costs or even revive indigent care, a form of last-resort care that has largely become obsolete due to Medi-Cal.

“Because the alternative is, people are going to be dying on the streets,” Bonta said.

Bonta said the Legislature should explore new funding sources. Some advocates are already pushing for a pair of proposed wealth tax ballot measures to fund health care and education, which Newsom opposes.

“We need to think about ways that we can increase our revenue sources … (with) openness around looking at our tax structure,” Bonta said, adding that there are ways “to make sure that everybody’s carrying their fair share.”

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

A year out from the Palisades Fire of January 2025, life’s not fully back to normal — and especially not without some of our favorite restaurants.

But some are open, catering in a different form, or have reached some closure.

Here’s a list of affected restaurants that are open (and would love your support), those still rebuilding and some that remain closed.

Reopened

Gladstones 

Open, outdoor seating only

17300 Pacific Coast Highway, Pacific Palisades

Gladstones is still serving its staple seafood — but only outside, under the stars and very warm heaters. The restaurant isn’t taking reservations now, so you can walk in anytime between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. Gladstone’s is still renovating its insides from the damage from the fire and flooding that followed.

Rosenthal Wine and Bar Patio

A patio at Rosenthal Wine's new location.

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Courtesy of Rosenthal Wine

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Open in a new location, limited hours
Kanan Dume Road and W. Newton Canyon Road, Malibu, 90265

Rosenthal Wine Bar and Patio is open at a new location on Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 4 p.m. Open since mid-August, they’ve been putting on events, comedy shows and concerts. They are also open to groups and parties to rent out any day of the week, and Mark Applebaum, Rosenthal marketing director, hopes that they can return to seven days a week in the new year.

Tramonto 

Catering and delivery services

Tramonto has turned to catering and delivery services from a kitchen in Santa Monica. They had served Italian food in Malibu for 10 years.

“We love Malibu, and it’s not like being in Malibu,” said owner Wilfredo Posadas.

But now those in the Malibu community and beyond can try their pasta from the comfort of their own home or at a catering event.

Duke’s 

Duke's signature sculpture of Hawaiian surfer Duke Kahanamoku, covered in debris and mud.

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Jimmy Chavez

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Duke's Malibu

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Open for private events
Grand reopening expected in February
21150 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu

Duke’s hopes to have its grand reopening in February. A planned partial reopening was delayed because of construction.

“You open one can of worms, and there’s three cans underneath it,” said Jimmy Chavez, Duke’s general manager who has been handling the remediation process.

However, Duke’s has been open for private events in their Ocean Room, which has gotten the community together and supported many core staff members. Regulars can expect to see nearly a brand new restaurant after a year of construction, but hopefully, some familiar faces as well.

Palisades Garden Cafe

Open
15231 La Cruz Drive, Pacific Palisades

The Garden Cafe has been open since March. While it may no longer be the easy stop after tennis lessons, it still serves its breakfast all day and wagyu burgers.

Prima Cantina

Open 

15246 W. Sunset Blvd., Pacific Palisades

Prima Cantina has been open since July, available for sit-down eating as well. It’s one of three restaurants open in the area right now, alongside the Garden Cafe and Chipotle across the street.

Closed

Moonshadows

The site where Moonshadows was in Malibu, seen in January 2025.

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Brian Feinzimer

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LAist

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Permanently closed

Moonshadows closed after nearly 40 years of serving Malibu. However, you can still find traces of their fine dining at sister restaurants the Sunset and Ca Del Sole, which are owned by the same people. If you yearn for the pumpkin tortellini or the spicy ahi tuna tartare, the Sunset is able to satisfy that craving.

Reel Inn and Cholada Thai

Closed

Reel Inn and Cholada Thai remain closed. The two faced licensing issues from the state, which according to ABC news, sent them a letter earlier this year terminating their lease.

Casa Nostra

Closed, may reopen 

Casa Nostra has not started rebuilding yet. They are a long way from a decision on that, said a manager at the Westlake location. They haven’t ruled it out, but for now, they are focusing on their Westlake location.

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.

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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LAist

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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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LAist

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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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LAist

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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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LAist

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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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LAist

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Lupine seen growing in the Santa Monica Mountains in December.

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Jacob Margolis

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LAist

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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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LAist

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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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LAist

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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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LAist

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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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Tree People

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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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Tree People

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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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Jacob Margolis

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LAist

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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.”

Southern California plant and animal life has long been adapted to fire. Though, in their recovery they face new challenges including climate change, repeated fires and the phenomenon of car exhaust unhelpfully fertilizing plants.

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.