In the News
Read about the latest news and events involving the RCD
Article Links & Additional Stories
Invasive Plants & Fire
Alexandra Applegate from KCRW joined our Research & Restoration team during one of our oak woodland volunteer events. While shadowing not just our team, but our friends at Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation area and Samo Fund, Alexandra learned more about the dangerous fire feedback loop invasive plants are helping to fuel within the Santa Monica Mountains.
While the work to eradicate invasive plants can seem never ending at times, our team remains hopeful. With the help of our community and the strength of native oak woodlands, perhaps we can learn to live in harmony with fire and our natural environment.
Watch Our Principal Conservation Biologist be Recognized in Celebration of Women’s History Month!
While celebrating Women’s History Month, the RCDSMM’s own Rosi Dagit was recognized by the Third District and Lindsey Horvath for her incredible contribution to the conservation of local fish species in Topanga. Watch the recognition ceremony at the link below.
Watch Rosi Dagit be recognized by our local District!
Endangered Steelhead & Tidewater Goby Rescued in the Wake of LA Fires
Your RCDSMM rescued two endangered fish from Topanga Creek after the Palisades Fire ripped through our mountains in early 2025. You can actually see these rescue efforts fisthand on the RCDSMM’s YouTube Channel.
Check out the videos linked below, both directed by Matthew Benton and edited by Zach Edwards.
Watch the Steelhead Trout Rescue
Watch the Tidewater Goby Rescue
KTLA Features Free RCDSMM Home Ignition Zone Evaluations
Check out the following article and video from KTLA covering RCDSMM Home Ignition Zone Evaluations and discover the importance of creating wildfire resilient space in your community.
Rescued Steelhead Trout Find Their Way Back Into a Natural Creek
Check out this blog post from LA River Fly Fishing, written by our very own Senior Conservation Biologist, Rosi Dagit, detailing the rescue and release of southern steelhead trout from Topanga Creek in the wake of recent fires.
How LA Wildfires Affected LA Wildlife
Read Smithsonian Magazine’s article on wildlife in LA and how it’s been irreparably impacted by fires. The article mentions many projects scientists are conducting to assess these intense impacts, including mention of your RCDSMM’s mission to rescue endangered southern steelhead from Topanga Creek.
Check out the full article at the link below and find a project in need of your help.
Read Smithsonian Magazine’s article here
Hundreds of Endangered Southern Steelhead Rescued from Topanga Creek
Your RCDSMM alongside partners from CA Department of Fish & Wildlife, National Marine Fisheries Service, Cachuma Operation & Maintenance Board, CalTrans, the Watershed Stewards Program in association with AmeriCorps and the CA Conservation Corps rescued over 250 southern steelhead trout from the fire impacted waters of Topanga Creek in January of 2025.
You can read more about the day’s events in the articles below. You can also watch some of our team in action on a segment of Nightly News with Lester Holt.
Read the LA Times article here
Hundreds of Endangered Tidewater Gobies Rescued from Topanga Lagoon
Your RCDSMM alongside partners from USFWS, USGS & CSU Channel Islands managed to rescue over 750 tidewater gobies from Topanga Lagoon, which was heavily impacted from the devastating fires that ripped through the Palisades. This project was made possible by CA State Parks, LACDBH and LA County Lifeguards.
Our team was joined by Lila Seidman, a reporter at the LA Times, who wrote an article describing our epic day. Check out the article at the link below.
We are grateful to Heal the Bay and Aquarium of the Pacific who both agreed to house these fish until they can return home. Check out Aquarium of the Pacific’s update on the project at the link below!
Spectrum 1 & ABC 7 also covered the rescue and give you a snapshot into how the gobies are doing at their new temporary home.
Read the LA Times article here
Read the Aquarium of the Pacific’s update here
Watch Spectrum 1’s coverage here
Read & watch ABC 7’s coverage here
Native oaks could be a solution to the dangerous fire feedback loop in Malibu
While fires have been part of life in the Santa Monica Mountains for decades, recently they’ve worsened in both intensity and frequency.
In the wake of the recent Franklin Fire, Noah Haggarty spoke with RCDSMM Field Biologists, Isaac Yelchin and Luke Benson, on how to stop the dangerous fire feedback loop in the Santa Monica Mountains. The chaparral of these mountains are extraordinarily species-rich and can provide many ecosystem services – carbon storage, reduction of soil erosion, water quality and even fire defense. Oaks specifically, as a fire-adapted species, are one of the most effective lines of natural fire defense.
Most of us want to help in some way but sometimes human involvement and activity in these wildland spaces can be detrimental, as research scientist Alexandra Syphard pointed out while speaking with Noah.
For those that can’t help living amongst and within our wildlands, Luke has some advice. Conservation, in so many ways, is an uphill battle, but you can break it down – take it one step at a time, one project at a time. And while this battle can feel overwhelming, the key to success, the key to existing in our current climate, is never to give up. Never let that pessimism win.
Read Noah Haggerty’s full article here
Environmental Speaker Series 2024: Talking Trees and Bad Beetles
Check out our Research and Restoration team discuss oak woodland health and invasive beetles during this 2024 Environmental Speaker Series.
The Queen of Malibu’s Big Dam Mistake
Read about the history [and potential misstep] of constructing Rindge Dam and why it is slated for removal.
Read the full Alta Journal article here
Badly damaged Topanga Lagoon has a chance to be restored
Two endangered fish would benefit from the resotration of Topanga Lagoonthis vital lagoon. Read the full story at the link below.
Read the full LA Daily News article here
African Clawed Frogs Removed From Local Pond
Check out coverage of our first-of-its-kind event where volunteers helped us remove an invasive frog from Satwiwa pond!
Read the article from Topanga New Times here
Malibu Creek Ecosystem Restoration Project Senior Environmental Scientist Helps Out with Snorkel Surveys
Project Manager and Senior Environmental Scientist for the Malibu Creek Ecosystem Restoration Project (MCERP), R.J. Van Sant, recently joined an RCD snorkel survey in Malibu Creek to help document baseline conditions for this important restoration project. MCERP seeks to remove the 100-foot-tall Rindge Dam on Malibu Creek and remediate 7-8 barriers upstream of the dam, opening up 15 miles of stream habitat for the first time in 100 years to benefit steelhead and other sensitve & endangered species.
Read the full newsletter article here
Bring the trout home: Will steelhead return to Malibu Creek?
Check out the following KCRW article by Will Callan featuring the RCD’s Princicpal Biologist, Rosi Dagit as she discusses how we can restore historic steelhead populations to Malibu Creek.
Wildlife Crossings Benefit More Than Just Mammals
While migratory and larger mammals may intially come to mind when we think of critters that are likely to utilize wildlife crossings, the benefits extend to many more mountainous animals, including our feathered friends! Check out the Audubon article below, featuring LA’s own wildlife crossing, to find out how avian species will take advantage of future crossings.
Discover How to Increase the Fire Resilience of Your Home by 40%
Check out the following news piece from Univision all about creating more fire resilient homes in CA – beginning from construction – featuring the RCD’s Fire Resistent Demonstration Structure!
The Importance of Light and Soundscapes when Building Wildlife Crossings
Many conservation and transportation agencies throughout CA have become increasingly interested in wildlife crossings, which enable threatened wildlife to traverse over busy highways. But if wildlife do not use these structures due to noise, light or unwelcoming vegetation, these crossings may not entice wildlife to cross at all.
Read the paper below to learn more, which the RCD’s own Executive Officer was a part of.
Oaks Newsletter – Lessons in coast live oak restoration from Trippet Ranch
Jump to page 5 of the Fall/Winter 2023 Oaks Newsletter to read about lessons the RCD and our oak community learned from woodland restoration in Trippet Ranch.
ABC Eyewitness 7 interviews RCD Biologist about recent rains and the benefit to local wildlife
Check out this interview with our Senior Conservation Biologist, Rosi Dagit and discover how the rains of 2023 have brought welcome relief to Santa Monica Mountain wildlife.
SoCal can expect more birds, rabbits, rats and snakes in wildlife surge after record rain
Check out this article from the LA Times featuring one of our Conservation Biologists and local bird expert, Dr. Dan Cooper!
Conserving Water at Home Could Save Native Turtles in LA
Discover how you can help native western pond turtles at home and in your local parks in the article below. Special appearance by our Senior Biologist and turtle lover, Rosi Dagit!
Taking Care of Your Trees During Drought
Find out the best ways to care for your trees throughout dry summer months and ongoing drought.
Get advice from our Senior Conservation Biologist
Clark Stevens Speaks at Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing Groundbreaking Ceremony
Clark Stevens, one of the original designers behind the Liberty Canyon Wildlife Crossing which will enable Los Angeles wildlife to safely traverse one of the busiest highways in the world, was invited to speak at the momentous Groundbreaking Ceremony for the Wallis Anneneberg Wildlife Crossing. Check out a clip from his speech below!
Topanga is Officially Firewise Certified!
Topanga Canyon is now officially recognized as a “Firewise” community by the National Fire Protection Association and CalFire. Organizations involved in making this possible include the Topanga Town Council, TCEP, the Topanga Canyon Fire Safe Council, Arson Watch, the Topanga Chamber of Commerce, and (of course!) the RCDSMM! This firewise designation means that Topangans have taken a quantifiable number of actions on their property and within the community to make their homes and the wider landscape more resistant to wildfires and the damage they cause. Read more about what this means for our communities at the link below.
What does it mean to be Firewise?
Bad Beetles Are Here
Check out this Canyon Chronicle article written by RCDSMM’s Senior Biologist, Rosi Dagit, to learn about invasive shot hole borers, the threat they pose to our native trees and what you can do to help!
LA Times Article – Creating Steelhead Passage in LA River
Our senior biologist, Rosi Dagit, was quoted in this LA Times article regarding the creation of Steelhead passage in the LA River. With the help of some incredible biologist and engineers, this city plans on welcoming steelhead back home by, as the Mayor puts, restoring “nature literally down the very spine of this great city.”
Earth Day 50 with the RCD
Celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day with this awesome compliation of RCD staffers telling you how to celebrate Earth Day from home, what inspired us to pursue a career in working for the environment, and what our earliest memory of being with and amongst nature was!
Watch the full Earth Day 50 RCD video here
RCDSMM Works with NASA to Study Tree Mortality
RCDSMM scientists and citizen volunteers have been studying tree mortality due to drought and invasive beetles. Collaboration with NASA to get the “10,000 foot” view of trees in the Santa Monica Mountains has greatly enhanced the project.
Watch the video about Tree Mortality study for more information