“Most ecologists say it will take 10 to 20 years for the Santa Monica Mountains to look the way they did before the Woolsey fire came through".............“Of course, that depends on rainfall and drought”............... "When it comes to native species, “this fire means they are going to struggle, some more than others”............"One of the largest mountain lion populations in Southern California is confined within 275 square miles in an around the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area"................"Studies begun in 2002 suggest the pre-fire landscape may have reached capacity with about 15 to 20 mountain lions".............."Inbreeding is a serious problem among these big cats, which have extremely low genetic diversity".............."The males will fight and kill others for territory(and the right to mate), which is vastly more limited after the Woolsey fire"............."Hopefully the planned wildlife overpass at the Liberty Canyon/Chesbrough Canyon interchanges on the 101 Freeway will get the necesssary funding to be built by 2021 to alleviate this population bottleneck"..............."For now, and in the years ahead, biologists will focus attention on how the mobile, efficient predators at the top of the area’s food chain are faring as well as their impact on recovering plant and animal populations"

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It will take '10 to 20 years' before Santa Monica Mountains look like they did before Woolsey fire

Louis Sahagan 11/18/18

Two dozen biologists with binoculars

 and telemetry equipment fanned out

 across the smoldering gulches and 

slopes of the Santa Monica Mountains

 National Recreation Area on Friday 

to take a preliminary accounting of 

the damage caused by wildfire to 

prime mountain lion country.

It was arduous, dusty work, traipsing

 through shrub lands reduced to piles

 of white ash and denuded canyons. 

But the data they gathered were cause 

for cautious optimism.

A deer lies where it fell, trying to outrun flames

 from the Woolsey fire, in the Solstice Creek

 bed below Corral Canyon Park in Malibu.

 (Reed Saxon / AP)

Of 13 mountain lions with radio collars they had 

been tracking before the Woolsey fire broke out,

 scientists confirmed that 12 were alive and

 moving outside of the burned areas in the

 vicinity of Point Mugu to the west, and from

 Malibu east to the 405 Freeway, scientists said.

One lion, a sub-adult known as P-74, remained

 unaccounted for.

Though Southern California’s urban mountain

 lions have become a fixture in popular

 imagination, they are an imperiled breed 

living at the very limit of what is ecologically 

possible. Now biologists are watching, unsure

 of what’s next in the area where many of the 

creature comforts that the large predators 

need to breed, hide and hunt deer were lost 

after the Woolsey fire roared through.

The 96,949 acres burned during the Woolsey Fire,
 11/8-11/11/17/18

“The national recreation area has become
 an immense natural experiment,” Seth
Riley, a National Park Service ecologist,
 said. “The big question now is this: What
 happens when a huge wildlife refuge
hemmed by freeways and development
abruptly loses more than half of its
 habitat to wildfire?”

For miles and miles in the Santa Monica 

Mountains, from ridgeline to ridgeline in

 all directions, the Woolsey fire exacted a 

heavy toll, burning 100,000 acres — 88%

 of the area’s federal parkland.

It is a huge loss for an unlikely wilderness 

that has persisted for decades through

 dogged conservation despite surrounding

 urban sprawl.

Burnt up Liberty Canyon

(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

Public access to the range was hard 

fought by a bipartisan coalition of 

conservation and civic groups starting

 in the 1960s. Their goal: a unique

 combination of city, county, state 

and federal land, together with

 beaches, trails and scenic corridors 

that would run from Griffith Park to 

Point Mugu in Ventura County.

In 1978, Congress awarded their 

efforts by authorizing the Santa

 Monica Mountains National

 Recreation Area to provide

 open space in one of the nation’s

 most congested, polluted and

 park-poor regions.

Over the past 40 years, its trails

 have become a destination for 

hikers, mountain bikers,

 bird-watchers and equestrians, 

its roads a fixture for car 

commercials and motorcycle 

clubs and its creeks a draw for 

busloads of schoolchildren from 

throughout the region.

Today, the chaparral highlands 

and sandstone peaks offer 

panoramic views of stubble and 

ash. Entry is restricted to people

 credentialed to work in fire zones.

The fire burned the life out of 

hiking trails some say rank with

 such iconic paths as the John Muir

 Trail in the Sierra Nevada range 

and the Appalachian Trail in the

 East. Completed in 2016 after a 

half-century of hard work and 

altruism, the Backbone stretches 

through 67 miles of sycamores, 

chaparral and sandstone peaks

 between Point Mugu State Park

 and Will Rogers State Historic

 Park. Officials said segments of

 the Backbone trail within the 

Woolsey fire’s footprint remain

 closed.

Emily Pruitt, a spokeswoman for

 the National Park Service, said it

 is too early to know when burned

 sections of the recreation area will reopen.

“The fire destroyed at least 616 

structures within the park,” she

 said, “and there are still a lot of 

potential hazards to be assessed.”

Properties with links to show 

business were destroyed. Among 

them were Paramount Ranch and

 sets used for HBO’s hit series

“Westworld” — both popular

 destination points for day trippers

 who used the background for 

family photos and Instagram posts.

A sign near the entrance to the Corral
 Canyon Park
 recreation area stands amid a landscape 
charred by 
the Woolsey fire in Malibu. 
(Reed Saxon / AP)

“Most ecologists say it will take 

10 to 20 years for the Santa 

Monica Mountains to look the

 way they did before the Woolsey 

fire came through,” said Mark

 Mendelsohn, a National Park

Service biologist. “Of course, 

that depends on rainfall and 

drought.”

When it comes to native species,

 he said, “this fire means they are

 going to struggle, some more than

 others.”

One of the largest mountain lion 

populations in Southern California

 is confined within 275 square miles 

in an around the Santa Monica 

Mountains National Recreation Area, 

which is bordered by the Pacific

 Ocean, major freeways, housing 

and commercial developments and 

agricultural fields.

Studies begun in 2002 suggest the 

pre-fire landscape may have reached 

capacity with about 15 to 20 

mountain lions. Inbreeding is a 

serious problem among these big 

cats, which have extremely low 

genetic diversity. The males will

 fight and kill others for territory, 

which is vastly more limited after 

the Woolsey fire.

A charred sign just west of Liberty

 Canyon Road and a stone’s throw 

from the 101 Freeway in Agoura

 Hills still stands in a critical 

wildlife corridor where 

conservationists hope to build a 

wildlife bridge. It would allow

 safe passage and help diversify

 the gene pool among the groups 

of mountain lions remaining in 

the Santa Monicas south of the

 freeway as well as in the Simi 

Hills and Santa Susana

 mountains to the north.

Now, the site of what aims to 

be one of the most ambitious 

predator restoration projects

 in the United States is 

surrounded by miles of charred

 hills and mountains.

Whenever conditions change,

there will be winners and losers.

 Mendelsohn has witnessed 

plenty of heartbreaking

 evidence of both during recent 

surveys of the still-smoldering 

landscape.

“Some animals didn’t make it,” 

he said. “But it was encouraging 

to see a deer in a completely

 charred forest, a tiny wren tit 

hunkering down in one of the 

few shrubs left standing, and 

a woodrat leap out from under 

a rock near where its nest had 

burned.”

It didn’t take long for Mendelsohn

 to find the natural sounds he was

 searching for as he strode along 

a creek edged with singed reeds 

and brush in the Upper Las 

Virgenes Canyon Open Space 

Preserve area of Agoura Hills.

It was home to an isolated 

population of federally 

threatened red-legged frogs 

discovered in 1998, and a 

place where biologists gather

 eggs used in reintroduction

 programs elsewhere in the 

recreation area.

The GPS collar of P-74, a young 
male mountain lion who lives in
 the area burned by the Woolsey 
fire, has not transmitted data in
 days. (National Park Service)

“Five plopping sounds in the

 water gave me a sense of

 cautious relief,” he said.

Federal biologists are discussing

 proposals to capture the frog

 population, if necessary, in t

he event a large storm threatens

 to bury one of the species’ last 

outposts in Los Angeles and 

Ventura counties in mud and 

debris.

There was good news in Topanga

 Canyon, where firefighters 

avoided dropping retardant 

that would have decimated a 

Malibu Creek habitat that’s 

home to frogs, newts and 

protected fish such as 

Arroyo chubs and federally

 endangered southern steelhead trout.

“Topanga Canyon was spared,”

 biologist Rosi Dagit said. “I 

recently stood on a roadside

 pullout overlooking the stream

 and shouted, ‘Thank god, 

you didn’t burn!’ ”

For now, and in the years

 ahead, biologists will focus 

attention on how the mobile, 

efficient predators at the top 

of the area’s food chain are

 faring, and their impacts on

 recovering plant and animal

 populations.

The surprise is that nearly

 all of the mountain lions 

with radio collars turned 

up outside of the fire’s 

burn 

area.

“It is not clear whether 

one or more of those

 mountain lions outran

 the fire to safer conditions, 

or just happened to be 

there by some amazing

 coincidence when the

 fire broke out,” said Riley,

 the National Park Service 

ecologist.

Questions remain

 about how these 

big cats — already 

living closer to their 

peers than they are 

predisposed to — 

will endure in even

 tighter confines.

There may be 

repercussions, and 

not just for the 

mountain lion 

population. “People 

really need to protect 

their animals,” Riley

 said, “now that there

 are fewer deer on the

 landscape.”