Public Helping to Monitor Malibu Creek

Visitors to Malibu Creek State Park are actively contributing strategic photos as part of the MCERP’s new community science program. The program helps monitor the changing conditions of the Malibu Creek watershed throughout the restoration. Participants have uploaded over 120 pictures since the program launch in early May.

“Documenting the physical condition of the creek and watershed over time is essential to this landscape-scale restoration effort,” said Russell Marlow, south coast project manager for California Trout.

The program’s first photo capturing site is in Malibu Creek State Park on Crags Road Trail about .25 mile in from the parking lot trail head. Located above Malibu Creek’s confluence with Las Virgenes Creek, the site is considered a dynamic and critical intersection. Uploaded photos from this location will help document the positive benefits expected downstream. 

Two more photo sites are soon to be added along the aquatic corridor, with headwaters starting in east Ventura County and ending at the ocean in Malibu Lagoon. “Public participation in taking and uploading photos in strategic aquatic zones along the corridor is helpful for building a robust data set and monitoring the creek’s transformation,” explains Marlow.

The community science monitoring program is funded by Resources Legacy Fund (RLF) focused on dam removal and river restoration in the American West and the Dorrance Family Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life in communities by supporting education and natural resource conservation.