On Wednesday, March 25, 2026, the County of Los Angeles Department of Parks and Recreation hosted a community meeting to share its conceptual understanding and plans for the rebuild of Eaton Canyon. Included in the discussion were four panelists: Megan Horn of Studio MLA, Kim Bosell with the County of Los Angeles, Marcus Gonçalves with SWCA Environmental Consultants, and Tim Becker of the Theodore Payne Foundation.
During the discussion, the panelists shared their understanding of how Eaton Canyon served the broader Los Angeles Community before the Eaton Fire, how a future nature center can better meet the needs the canyon serves, what lessons they’ve learned from past wildfires that will help inform their decision-making, and how the County plans to reconstruct the park.
Of particular note was the County’s emphasis that they understand Eaton Canyon is not like its regular grass-and-playground urban parks; it is a native landscape where natural processes are left to shape the park on their own. Dead trees are left to rot (so long as they aren’t next to public amenities), debris flows are free to reshape the canyon, and native plants complete their lifecycle without any intervention from humans. Here were the key pointers:
Designing a System, Not a Place
A recurring theme across disciplines—ecology, engineering, and landscape architecture—is that Eaton Canyon must be treated as a system. According to Studio MLA Principal Megan Horn and her understanding of her team’s role, this system must:
– Accommodate wildfire and post-fire flooding
– Create a defensible structure that protects both the building and the surrounding neighborhoods
– Stabilize slopes and manage sediment transport
– Support native plant regeneration
– Integrate recreation without compromising recovery
This approach extends to infrastructure. Any new facility, including the proposed Landscape Recovery Center (LRC), must be defensible by design and capable of withstanding fire exposure while minimizing risk to both people and the surrounding environment. Importantly, Megan noted, this is “not a blank slate.” The site carries constraints, history, and ecological memory. Designing within that context is essential.
Rethinking Restoration
For those who have worked in Eaton Canyon for years, this is not unfamiliar territory. Regional Operations Manager Kim Bosell, with over a decade of experience working onsite, emphasized that recovery is never straightforward. Each fire teaches different lessons, including what works, what fails, and what must change. To her, the central conclusion is clear:
Eaton Canyon cannot be rebuilt as it was. This was true following the 1993 Kinneloa Fire, and it will be true following the 2025 Eaton Fire.
Instead, recovery must be approached as an adaptive process. This means the county plans to correct past vulnerabilities, design for future weather extremes, and accept that Eaton Canyon is a whole new park that is in a different chapter of its life from when we last saw it.
Aiding Nature In It’s Recovery
Although the County is directing resources towards understanding its future presence in the canyon, it is also allocating resources to aid the park’s natural recovery. This is where Marcus Gonçalves, with SWCA Environmental Consultants, and Tim Becker of the Theodore Payne Foundation, come in. Here, the panelists shared that they understand that both their organizations and the County of Los Angeles have a responsibility in aiding Eaton Canyon in its natural recovery. Tim Becker, in particular, noted that “although nature can recover on its own, the timescales we are discussing here are a human lifetime. In fact, they may even be longer as we keep negatively impacting the park.” Through climate change and user impacts, the full natural recovery of Eaton Canyon depends on our ability to support it. How does one do that? First and foremost, remove the invasive plant species.
Every Friday since August 2025, the County of Los Angeles has supported group volunteer efforts in the canyon to remove invasive plants. Members of the general public have been targeting these plants that do not belong in Southern California, including Short-pod Mustard, Castor Bean, Tree Tobacco, and other annual invasive grasses.
Ultimately, the County wanted to share that moving forward, recovery at Eaton Canyon will be deliberate—act where needed, but do not rush decisions that will affect the site for decades.
This is not a simple rebuild. The canyon sits in a high-risk urban–wildland area, and the old way of managing it is no longer sufficient.