Four months after a devastating fire scorched the Santa Monica mountains above Pacific Palisades, wildlife are returning to the area, as green shoots draw herbivores back into the blackened hills and silted canyons.
The Palisades Fire destroyed more than 23,000 acres from Pacific Palisades to Malibu, and damaged the Topanga State Park, as well as the local Temescal Gateway Park, destroying historic sites in the mountains. It will take years, and perhaps decades, for the area to recover. The fires were followed by heavy rains that caused rockfalls that buried canyons and erased hiking trails that had been enjoyed by locals for generations.
But the first green shoots had appeared in the burn scar within a month, and wildlife slowly began to return to the
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