Four months post a devastating fire in the Santa Monica Mountains, wildlife is beginning to return.
The Palisade fire ravaged over 23,000 acres, impacting areas from Pacific Palace to Malibu and devastating Topanga State Park and the nearby Temescal Gateway Park. It will likely take years, possibly decades, for these landscapes to heal. The fire was followed by significant rainfall, which led to further destruction, collapsing canyons and obliterating beloved hiking trails.
Yet, just a month later, green shoots began to emerge from the burn scars, signaling that wildlife was slowly returning. Trail cameras captured images of desperate bobcats, coyotes, and deer—survivors of the blaze. Mountain lion tracks appeared on the muddy terrain as hungry predators emerged at night, searching for water and small animals to survive.
As the once brown and black hills turn green, they’re offering food to herbivores and providing cover from predators, which brings larger animals back to areas that seemed bleak just weeks prior.
Although collecting data on mountain wildlife is challenging, there are confirming photos of animals, mainly deer and birds, returning to the fire-ravaged regions. With their return, predators such as mountain lions and coyotes are likely to follow. Finding water may pose a challenge due to the destruction of many rock pools, but the winter rain has created some small streams in the hills.
