Santa Monica Mountains Woolsey Fire Recovery and Adaptation Program

A multi-sector collaborative effort to improve wildfire outcomes and increase ecosystem resilience in the Santa Monica Mountains of California

Conservation Biology Institute and the Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains are working in partnership with local land management agencies and communities to increase wildfire resilience in the Santa Monica Mountains region. The Program has the following tasks:

Raising awareness about wildfire risk in the local communities

• Providing Home Ignition Zone Evaluations to help homeowners reduce their fire risk. If you are interested in having your home evaluated, or getting trained to do evaluations in your neighborhood, contact the RCD SMM.
• Surveying residents about their knowledge of wildfire risk and what they can do to reduce it. Here are the results of the 2021 Survey, and you can take the 2022 Santa Monica Mountains Wildfire Preparedness Survey here.

Helping homeowners prepare for wildfire

• The program provides assistance to homeowners to reduce their wildfire susceptibility by removing hazard trees and restoring burned landscapes to buffer neighborhoods from wildfire
• Learn more about home hardening and ecologically-appropriate defensible space techniques at http://defensiblespace.org.

Mapping and planning the control of flammable invasive weeds in the Woolsey Fire footprint

• The program and its partners Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, and California State Parks have contracted with Wildlands Conservation Science to conduct aerial surveys to map invasive plant species in the public lands of the Santa Monica Mountains to inform land management to increase future public safety and wildfire preparedness.
• The data and a comprehensive weed control plan will be available by the end of 2023.

Modeling and research to inform planning and decision making

• Program partner U.S. Forest Service Missoula Fire Sciences Lab is modeling ember transport at the property scale under different defensible space conditions. Results of this study will be available in early 2023.
• Conservation Biology Institute conducted ignition and large fire probability modeling to help prioritize locations for risk reduction. See these results here: Wildfire Ignition Potential and Large Wildfire Potential models. You may also see this Wildfire Model Comparison for SMM Region to compare and get access to other important fire risk and hazard maps.

The Santa Monica Mountains Woolsey Fire Recovery and Adaptation Program is funded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.