Marsha Maus grew up in Malibu in the 1950s, and embodies the authentic wild child hippy spirit of Topanga Canyon that is becoming rare. She shares her unique perspectives with TNT contributor Ivan Kashinsky in a candid conversation about love, freedom, memories— aspects of an extraordinary life, lived with panache, creativity and passionate individualism. Marsha lost her home in the 2018 Woolsey Fire. We hope her courage and resilience will be an inspiration for those who are coping with loss from the Palisades Fire. Photo of Marsha by Ivan Kashinsky. Cover concept and design by Urs Baur
This is the three month anniversary of the Palisades Fire. For those who lost their homes, and for everyone who is impacted by the road closures and fire aftermath, those three months feel more like years.
Pacific Coast Highway and Topanga Canyon Boulevard south of Grand View, will remain closed. An intrepid group of Topanga protesters gathered at Jalan Jalan last Sunday to protest the closure and to bring awareness to the plight of local small businesses. Caltrans officials have arranged for Topanga school buses to access the road, but a full reopening could still be months away. The damage to the road is extensive. In Malibu, even those with passes are having a difficult time getting through. Huge amounts of heavy equipment and periodic full closures make travel here challenging. No official plans to open the road to the public or even to residents who do not live in the burn zone have been released, but the KBUU Malibu radio station was reporting last week that the Army Corps expects to complete debris clearance by early summer.
The deadline to opt in to have the US Army Corps of Engineers clear burned buildings has been extended. Property owners now have until April 15. There are still reportedly 132 properties in the Palisades Fire burn area that have not yet been cleared for debris removal.
Business owners and residents of the two Pacific Palisades mobile home parks destroyed in the fire received good news this week. FEMA has announced that mobile home parks, apartments, commercial structures and parks will now be eligible for the federal Phase 2 debris clearance program.
The announcement reverses an earlier decision that left commercial property owners and the residents of more than 300 mobile homes in limbo, with no federal debris clearance assistance.
Did the Palisades Fire start twice? That’s what a lawsuit filed by fire victims alleges. The legal action, filed against the City of Los Angeles and the LADWP, states that there is evidence to support the contention that energized power lines ignited a second wave of fire, 12 hours after the Palisades Fire began.
Attorneys representing the fire victims said they believe power lines fell during the high winds, igniting a second fire about 12 hours after the Palisades Fire began. DWP officials initially denied that the lines were de-energized, but documents obtained by lawyers have revealed that wasn’t the case. Three months later, no official cause for the Palisades Fire has been declared. It’s discouraging that the truth is apparently only going to come to light through litigation.
On César Chávez Day—March 31—U.S. Senator Alex Padilla and Representative Raul Ruiz introduced bicameral legislation to create the César E. Chávez and the Farmworker Movement National Historical Park. This bill would preserve the nationally significant sites associated with Chávez and the farm worker movement in California and Arizona. Senator Adam Schiff is cosponsoring the legislation. That’s great, but one suspects that if César Chávez was still with us, he would be less concerned with monuments and more concerned with fighting for workers and immigrants at a time when civil rights are being dismantled.
At Hopper Mountain National Wildlife Refuge in Ventura County, California condor #846 laid an egg last week. She was born in the wild at Hopper Mountain in 2022, and she is a living testament to the ongoing success of the Condor Recovery Program and the importance of the Endangered Species Act, which is now threatened by the Trump Administration.
The California condor population has recovered from just 22 individuals in the 1980s to 561 today, with 345 now living in the wild. Maybe someday California Condors will return to the Santa Monica Mountains, if they survive, and if the laws that protect them and the programs to monitor and ensure their health survive.
Ken Brower, a prominent environmentalist and condor advocate famously said, “When the Vultures watching your civilization begin dropping dead…it is time to pause and wonder.”
The California condor is North America’s largest bird, with a wingspan of nearly 10 feet. It’s an ancient Native American symbol of divine power. Saving the condor is a multigenerational, international effort. Saving the condor has been a bipartisan effort. This program and its remarkable success represents the real American spirit, and the hope for a better future.
Stay safe, be well.
