News

On Saturday, April 20th, 2024, the Eaton Canyon Nature Center hosted it’s 2024 Earth Day event with multiple conservation events, nature-themed booths, and games for kids. Over 500 visitors had the chance to make arts and crafts, learn about the native plants and animals in Eaton Canyon, and give back to the canyon itself.

Eleven volunteers and three staff members helped sort all of the recycling Eaton Canyon had been building up since last Christmas. Over twenty 75-gallon bags of either plastic, aluminum, or glass were filled and made ready to take to the local recycling center. Once turned in for cash, the Nature Center uses the money to purchase food and supplies for the animal ambassadors on site.

While these volunteers sorted recycling, the WeExploreEarth hiking group conducted a trash pickup along the main trail from the Nature Center all the way to the Eaton Canyon Falls within the Angeles National Forest. Volunteers said the entire trail was fairly clean, but the waterfall itself within the National Forest boundary had quite a bit of trash. Once finished with the recycling, some volunteers continued to give back to the canyon by helping to clear invasive plant species from the service road along the lower Eaton Wash.

At approximately 11:30am, the park had to be shut down after multiple cars began parking on a steep slope in the overflow lot that contained tall grasses. This action is highly dangerous as the exhaust pipe of vehicles can reach 2,800°F and ignite the grasses underneath. Vehicles driving or parking over dry grasses is a common way wildfires start in California. Fuel loads statewide are at record highs after 2 straight years of wetter than average conditions. All gates were closed for about an hour to allow the parking lots to empty out. This is the third time Eaton Canyon has had to be shut down in 2024 due to excessive visitation.

During the second half of April 2024 the California Conservation Corps in partnership with the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation will work to replace or remove nearly 200 signs, inconspicuous poles, and maps throughout all of Eaton Canyon. The work will be conducted between where the Eaton Canyon Trail begins in the Equestrian Area and end at the Chuck Ballard Memorial Bridge at the canyon mouth.

For some time now, signage at Eaton Canyon had been okay in some areas and unacceptable in others. One location of note were the signs located by the Walnut Canyon turnoff which had been so heavily graffitied and sun-bleached over the years that they were completely illegible and an eye-sore. Of them, half the signs were beyond cleaning. Many signs throughout the park faced graffiti on a weekly basis, while others such as the mile marker signs were pulled up and tossed in Eaton Creek by visitors. Thanks to work by Eaton Canyon Nature Center staff, Eaton Canyon Natural Area volunteers, and funding from Los Angeles County, all signs and poles are now going to be removed or replaced. In fact, the work has already begun.

In addition to all signs being replaced, many inconspicuous poles, concrete rocks, and even one pole that is a tripping hazard on the main trail itself will be removed from the canyon. New interpretive signage regarding Eaton Canyon’s history, natural wonders, and wildlife designed by the Nature Center Associates will be going up on the trails surrounding the Nature Center.

Due to Eaton Canyon’s harsh, rocky soils, this work is expected to take up to 2-3 weeks and should be finished in early May.

On Tuesday morning, April 9, 2024, firefighters received a 9-1-1 call reporting a small brushfire in the backcountry of Eaton Canyon. The call came from a neighbor in the Canyon Close neighborhood overlooking the canyon at 6:17am. Only 9 minutes later, firefighters were on scene and headed into the park. By 6:33am, firefighters confirmed a fire was occurring and a full brush response was en route. Over the next hour, a fireline was cut around the fire and down the nearby hillside to allow for firefighter access.

This spot fire occurred at the top of a steep hill close to the beginning of the Meadow Trail within the Los Angeles County Parks and Recreation jurisdiction. Only a 10×10 foot area was burned in the brushfire. A tent possibly belonging to a transient was found only a few feet away. Temperatures were around 60°F with humidity levels around 30% at the time of the incident. Santa Ana winds were gusting out of the northeast to 17 MPH at the Pinecrest Gate nearby, but winds were likely weaker by Coyote Canyon where the fire occurred, with negligible gusts of 5 MPH from the northeast.

Over the past 18 months, Eaton Canyon has observed about 75″ of precipitation. This officially makes the October 2022 – April 2024 period the wettest 18-month period on record out of 116 years of weather record keeping. Thanks to enormous amounts of precipitation, overall water content in the canyon is high and vegetation is unlikely to burn. Over the coming weeks and months, however, this enormous fuel load will dry out. A repeat of kind of this situation later this summer or autumn would not end well.