On Saturday, September 20, 2025, the County of Los Angeles hosted its annual community meeting for Eaton Canyon at Loma Alta Park in northwest Altadena. This was the first community meeting since the devastating Eaton Fire, which destroyed the park and Nature Center in January 2025. With 58 community members and 9 Parks and Recreation staff, it was unsurprisingly the most well-attended community meeting since the county began hosting such events in 2023.
The meeting was led by Eaton Canyon Regional Park Superintendent Richard Smart, and was attended by Regional Operations Manager Kim Bosell, County Biologist Cristhian Mace, and Eaton Canyon park grounds maintenance.
Key points discussed at the meeting:
(Unlike past articles on community meetings, this one simply relays what was discussed verbatim)
- Eaton Canyon Hard Closure
- Park Safety Issues
- Park Ecological Recovery
- Park Infrastructure
- Landscape Recovery Center
- Phases of Recovery
- Henninger Flats
- Equestrian Area
- New Nature Center Location
- Public Comment
Richard Smart, the Regional Park Superintendent at Eaton Canyon, wanted to press the point that Eaton Canyon is, and will remain under, a hard closure order for the remainder of 2025. Nobody is allowed to be in Eaton Canyon without pre-approval of County leaders, including members of the general public, park staff, park docents, park volunteers, Angeles National Forest staff, Southern California Edison employees, or any other contractors. Fines for being in Eaton Canyon Natural Area begin at $75 and can rise from there.
Eaton Canyon Natural Area is highly likely to be closed through the remainder of 2026, making this the longest hard-closure order in Eaton Canyon’s history.
Eaton Canyon is under a hard closure for the health and safety of it’s visitors.
Eaton Canyon is a natural area with rugged trails, unaltered native landscape, and plentiful wildlife. Visiting parks like this always carry a certain element of risk. However, the combination of an 8-month old burn scar and major debris flows in late winter 2025 have dialed each hazard up to 10 to the point in which the County feels a line has been crossed.
These hazards include unstable or lose boulders which are plentiful throughout the canyon, weakened trees that could fall randomly without notice onto unsuspecting visitors, and dangerous wildlife such as Mountain Lions and Rattlesnakes which no longer have brush to take cover in and may feel increasingly threatened by human presence.
For these reasons, and among others, Eaton Canyon is closed to all visitors.
Wildfire is an integral part of Eaton Canyon’s chapparal ecosystem health. Without fire, certain rare plants are unable to compete with the more common plants that tend to take over everything, such as Buckwheat and Laurel Sumac.
However, the 18 – 36 months that follow a major wildfire is a very vulnerable time for the canyon. Increased severity of debris flows, invasive plants species, hotter summers with less shade, and more frequent dust storms make recovery slow and unsteady. In order to give Eaton Canyon the best chance to recover ecologically, the park must remain closed during this formative period.
Eaton Canyon is among the most popular hiking trails in Southern California. In order to keep it functioning properly, a well-stocked Nature Center with enough staff is needed. Supplies and equipment, such as a truck, an ATV, gardening tools, power tools, cleaning solutions, hand tools, and workroom supplies are all needed to run the park. In addition, certain amenities such as water fountains, restrooms, first aid kits, shade structures, parking lots, and seating areas are required to accommodate visitors. Finally, a strong team of park staff including grounds maintenance workers, Sherriff’s deputies, recreation service leaders, and volunteers are needed to facilitate park operations, daily routines, and incidents.
With the complete loss of the Nature Center, Eaton Canyon has none of the above. Without a facility, the county cannot operate a park at all, let alone do so safely.
The County of Los Angeles formally announced the creation of a Landscape Recovery Center in the area once known as the Equestrian Area. This facility, funded by a grand from the state’s Measure A, will aim to speed up the ecological recovery of the canyon, bring the Altadena community together, and reconstruct Altadena’s severely damaged urban forest.
Beginning before the end of 2025, a small team of park staff and park volunteers will return to Eaton Canyon full time to cultivate native plants and trees in the canyon. As per the outlines of the grant, any trees that are grown must be planted in parks impacted by the 2025 Southern California Wildfires. While it is highly unlikely any new trees will be planted at Eaton Canyon (the canyon will decide on it’s own where it wants trees), the trees will remain in large pots in the Landscape Recovery Center for years to come.
Eaton Canyon will have multiple phases of reconstruction, starting with the Landscape Recovery Center. Efforts to aid the park in vegetation regrowth, repair trails, and bring maintenance facilities back to the park will follow. The reconstruction of the next Nature Center remains years away.
County Fire Department operations at Henninger Flats have permanently ceased. While the Department of Parks and Recreation has expressed interest in taking over the area, no plans whatsoever are currently in motion. Henninger Flats will remain in limbo for the time being.
The Eaton Canyon Equestrian Area is will be dismantled. While the trail is to stay horse friendly, the usage of the horse corral over recent years has been far too low to justify it’s existence. The area is already being transformed into the Landscape Recovery Center initially, and then into additional overflow parking later in the 2020s.
The location of the new Nature Center is very much up for discussion. Considerations for funding, land-use changes, natural disaster hazards, visibility, utility, and purpose are all being considered.
Pubic comments may be submitted to [email protected]
10-6- 2025
Good morning,
Regarding the equestrian arena, I am part of a small equestrian stable that literally is next door to the nature center. We have been your neighbors for more than 35 years. Our barn burned down in the fires of January 2025. It has been an extreme hardship not to have a place or support to exercise our 2000-pound horses who rely on the canyon for daily exercise to maintain muscle mass. Our on-site arena was destroyed in the fire from debris. We still have no local, easy access to ride. We are like ships docked but unable to sail.
When I read that the nature center removed the equestrian arena, I was heartbroken. I wished that before the removal, they had reached out to our barn to include the equestrians in the decision. The staging area is needed when equestrians visit the canyon, like the sheriff department who will patrol the park, as needed. There is room on the Nature Center property for an arena and a recovery center.
My dream is that Eaton Canyon Parks and Recreation will step up and help the equestrian community by proving signage to yield to equestrians, and create a staging area and another arena for equestrians. Please consider working with the equestrian community for the future of Eaton Canyon. We need your help and support.
Erica
Your next door equestrian neighbor.
If they had kept the arena up, it would have been used. Instead, it was full of rocks that did damage to hooves, and when the turned out horses rolled, they got thistles and burs all over themselves and in their manes and tails. It was a neglected arena, rarely groomed, and, therefore, seemingly left purposely unusable! And the horse owners did ask, to no avail, that it be kept up!
Rosie Johnson, owner of Eaton Canyon Riding Club, tried to keep the area horse friendly in perpetuity, but just got tired. Her riding club was on the site of the arena, which the county has just torn down. Her barn was very integral to the lives of many, many youngsters, providing a healthy recreational lifestyle. LA County has horse barns elsewhere, for example Whittier Narrows. LAEC and Browns Canyon Equestrian Center (that I have read, Supervisor Barger wants to refurbish). In Eaton Canyon there are horse tie rails that were used in the old days. Why remove all vestiges of this lifestyle. Many of us say you should double down on it! There is room to build a barn and arena! And, there is nothing available in this particular area for horse loving youngsters.
Robert McCurdy, civic and equestrian leader, fought for the horse. McCurdy was integral in building the trail system in Eaton Canyon. Bob McCurdy was revered in the area as an outstanding civic leader, avid equestrian, and trail builder. So much so that the original nature center was named in his honor
Yet, the county has and continues to ignore the horse.
I sent an email to Supervisor Barger regarding a different point of view and referencing the history of the horse and the pioneers in Eaton Canyon. History that should be preserved as much as the plant and wildlife. I do hope Supervisorv Barger will read it. The canyon is rich with history of early pioneers and horses.
Thank you,
Mary Gillham