Five years of research culminates in impressive imagery at Santa Monica Mountains Visitor Center
Five years of captivating images gathered by the Woolsey Fire Recovery Project will be on display at the Santa Monica Mountains Visitor Center from Aug. 1 to Sept. 22.
Welcoming over 60 community members on Aug. 10, park partner staff hosted a presentation to educate the public about the project, what is being uncovered by the research, and how the habitat in the Santa Monica Mountains has recovered since the fire. The exhibit is being sponsored by the Santa Monica Mountains Fund.
The project began in 2019 as a major collaborative effort to study the fire’s impact and long-lasting effects on the ecosystem and its inhabitants. The project consists of over 180 designated sites, surveying unburned and burned areas in the Santa Monica Mountains, Santa Susana Mountains, and Simi Hills with wildlife camera traps.
Scattered along remote locations to avoid human interaction with the wildlife, the cameras gather a series of photos triggered when an infrared beam detecting both motion and heat is tripped. The cameras provide researchers with the most authentic glimpse of wildlife in their habitat and are an opportunity to monitor rare species like black bears, spotted skunks, and American badgers.
The images on display at the Visitor Center are the public’s first glimpse at these images, completely raw and unedited. Typically not publicized, the photos are usually used to track times, locations, movements, and habits of rare and local species.
Santa Monica Mountains Fund Wildlife and Volunteer Program Technician Miroslava Munguia Ramos hosted the public presentation at the visitor center and has hiked, tended to, and monitored the cameras as a lead for the project.
“We didn’t stage anything, we didn’t use any fancy equipment, we let our research cameras do their thing. It’s a reallynice showcase of what our research looks like,” Munguia Ramos said. “This is what wildlife is up to when we’re not looking, in places we can’t typically get to. We’re getting a sneak peek of the wildlife without worrying about spooking or disturbing any of the wildlife.”
The project partnered the National Park Service, California State Parks, Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority, UCLA, Santa Monica Mountains Fund, and several private landowners to make the project possible. Ecologists, technicians, and volunteers have worked to gather and sort through over half a million photos across the study area.
Munguia Ramos said the exhibit is the result of a lot of careful planning, maintenance, and patience. She explained that cameras could be placed for periods of two to six months, but what is captured on those cameras will not be discovered until the end of that camera’s cycle.
“It’s a lot of work behind the scenes to figure out where, when, and how long cameras will be placed but when we go out into the field and we see it all come together it’s really neat to see it all connect,” Munguia Ramos said.
Munguia Ramos explained that although the project began to monitor and support research in the wake of the Woolsey Fire, the hope is that the cameras will continue to serve researchers studying the mountains, and will be a resource for researching and monitoring the effects of the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing slated to open in 2026.
“We’re trying to stretch more into long-term monitoring, which directly supports other ongoing research looking at mountain lions, bobcats, deer, and quail and soon will see how species compositions will vary across different sites before and after the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing,” Munguia Ramos said.
Munguia Ramos was happy with the turnout on Aug. 10 and the overall interest and support for the project. She said the presentation was a crash course on the Woolsey Fire, and what the baseline is now for wildlife in the area.
“Following the presentation we had an extra 45 minutes afterwards chatting with folks answering questions on what camera traps we use, bits about the wildlife crossing over Liberty Canyon; it was nice, a solid mix of people interested in the science and how the research is impacted, it was a good time.” Munguia Ramos said.
The exhibit of research photos is on display between 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday, at the Santa Monica Mountains Visitor Center through Sept. 22. More information on research in the Santa Monica Mountains can be found by visiting www.nps.gov/samo or by following @santamonicamountainsnps on Instagram.