Los Angeles national park wins award for volunteer efforts to monitor wildlife recovery after the 2018 Woolsey Fire

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THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. -- Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area recently received the national 2025 Excellence in Volunteerism Innovation Award for volunteer efforts to monitor wildlife recovery in the aftermath of the 2018 Woolsey Fire.

The Woolsey Fire of November 2018 burned 97,000 acres, which affected large natural areas within and surrounding the park. Biologists were worried about how wildlife would respond to this large-scale ecological impact, so researchers decided to begin an ambitious study to evaluate how populations of wildlife, primarily mammals, responded to this unprecedented event.

The project, dubbed the Woolsey Fire Recovery Camera Project, is a collaborative volunteer program established in 2019 led by park educators and scientists to monitor and understand how wildlife recovers after large ecosystem impacts, including wildfires.

"This project was the first time we had the ability to monitor the larger mammal community across the entire park," said Seth Riley, branch chief for wildlife at the park. "It is incredibly valuable not only for evaluating the effects of major disturbances such as fire, but also for tracking the status of these important species generally."

The project team recruited and trained over two dozen volunteers to help select study sites, install camera posts, and deploy and retrieve 60 wildlife cameras. More than 4,300 volunteers provided 12,500 hours of service with an estimated value of $434,875.

Volunteers sorted through over one million images and identified wildlife species on photos through the online platform Zooniverse. Those images captured well-known wildlife species including ground squirrels, deer, bobcat, and mountain lion. Rare and uncommon species including spotted skunk, black bear, American badger, and ringtail were caught on camera and surprised biologists since so little is known about their populations in the study area.

Miroslava Munguia Ramos is the current project lead and an employee of the Santa Monica Mountains Fund, the official non-profit partner of the national and state parks in the national recreation area. Raised in the San Fernando Valley, the UC Davis graduate first got involved with the park as a volunteer in 2020.

"It's such an honor for our whole team to receive national recognition on the research, interpretation, and community engagement of this project," Munguia Ramos said.

Now in its sixth year, the project has shifted towards long-term monitoring. Most recently, the project collected information before, during, and after the Palisades Fire of 2025.

The study area spans the Santa Monica Mountains and much of the Simi Hills. Partners include California State Parks, the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA), Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy (SMMC), the Conejo Open Space Conservation Agency (COSCA), and the Boeing Santa Susana Field Laboratory, all of whom granted land access for the project.

UCLA Master of Science alumna Chloe Nouzille initially established this project working with National Park Service biologists Joanne Moriarty and Riley. Additionally, Dan Blumstein and Morgan Tingley of UCLA's Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology provided critical guidance in fire ecology and data analysis.

The project continues to engage with the local community through events supported by the Santa Monica Mountains Fund including photography exhibits, tabling and speaking events, and an upcoming wildlife concert featuring music composed to highlight these wildlife images. To date, the project has engaged over 45,000 visitors to learn more about the wildlife and research diversity of the park thanks to the efforts and data collected by park volunteers.