In January 2025, the Palisades and Eaton Fires reshaped Los Angeles forever. These fires claimed lives, homes, schools, and deeply impacted both ecological systems and community infrastructure across two different landscapes and communities of the greater Los Angeles area. While the fires shared common drivers, drought, wind, and fuel buildup, they also highlighted the vulnerabilities and unique characteristics of distinct wildland urban interfaces.
This panel brings together leaders from the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation and the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA) to examine the complex, long-term impacts of these fires on public parklands, recreational infrastructure, and ecological integrity, and share critical lessons on recovery, resilience, and rebuilding. The session will highlight how rebuilding parks and trails is a foundational step in community recovery: restoring stability, fostering healing, and offering visible progress. Topics will include damage assessments and public safety responses; how community engagement shaped early recovery; emerging models for climate-adapted trails and wildfire-resilient park infrastructure; and how regional park agencies are building new systems of interagency coordination to prepare for future fire events.
Panelists will share how agencies responded to the destruction of community-serving green spaces, trails, and recreational and community facilities, and how coordinated planning and leveraging public-private partnerships helped mobilize funding and capacity for both short and long-term resilience and equitable restoration. They will explore a central tension between balancing public demand for access with the ecological need for post-burn recovery and the opportunity to rebuild more sustainably. Attendees will leave with actionable strategies and best practices for integrating fire recovery and preparedness into public park planning and advancing multi-jurisdictional collaboration in an era of accelerating climate risk.
Support is provided by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Foundation.
