"We in Malibu are stewards of the environment," Darren Graves told The Malibu Times in February. "Malibuites always clean up the beach." He was talking about the public shoreline from Duke's to Topanga Boulevard. In the same interview he explained why his crew had started in the first place. They "removed debris because no one else did."
For most of the time since the January 2025 fire, the people caring for this stretch have mostly been people who can see it from home. That includes a volunteer crew of two sisters and their spouses, a neighborhood alliance that first met on the grounds of a former nursery, and a conservation district counting fish in Topanga Creek. Their work this year left a record of cleanups, meeting notes and fish counts. It also points to a design review on October 29 that anyone living between Las Flores Canyon and Topanga can join.
Duke's to Topanga Boulevard, by Hand
The Malibu Times described Graves's group as an all-volunteer crew made up mainly of the Sutton sisters. Julie Sutton Bacino and Suzie Sutton Rottman did the work alongside their spouses. Graves dated their start to March 2025, when they began pulling fire debris out of the ocean. By his estimate, they removed between three and five tons in the first three months.
Graves also explained why the work didn't end after that first season. "When there were storms, the beach sand dropped between 7 and 8 feet, and debris was exposed." Debris that looked gone after a calm month could surface again after one high-surf week. On a beach like that, a single cleanup day removes what's on top and leaves the rest buried.
Barbara Gentile, co-owner of Malibu Divers, has proposed taking the same idea underwater. She presented "The Blue Force," a plan to mobilize citizen divers for ocean recovery, to the county's Beach Commission. Her survey area covered the coast from Carbon Beach to Chautauqua Boulevard and named Las Flores as part of the Palisades Fire ocean recovery zone. At the time of that February report, The Blue Force was still a plan. It needed experts, a sonar-equipped boat, qualified divers and funding for professional staff. "At the end of the day, we need funding to pay for the effort because we need professional staff and boats," Gentile said.
A Neighborhood Meeting at the Old Nursery
The volunteer work found a regular meeting place this year. The East Malibu Neighborhood Alliance, a new group of local businesses and residents, held its first meeting on Sunday, January 18. According to The Malibu Times, it met at Malibungalows. The host was Lynn Bealer, who owns Malibungalows. The business sits on the grounds of a former nursery along that stretch of Pacific Coast Highway.
A meeting attendee, described the first agenda. "We discussed the graffiti on La Costa Beach's ruined walls and the volume of rising sediment under the Las Flores Canyon bridge caused by the last hard rains." The group set out a practical to-do list:
- Clear storm debris from Las Flores Creek, along with solicitation flyers and posters
- Remove graffiti, but only after the homeowner approves
- Coordinate sandbag distribution during storms
- Connect residents with local volunteer opportunities and help homeowners rebuild
The meeting schedule is listed differently in different places. The February article said the alliance planned free monthly gatherings. The group's own site, eastmalibu.com, describes them as quarterly. The website is the place to check for the next date.
The Mud Under the Bridge Is Tomorrow's Sand
The most interesting idea from that first meeting came from Paul Grisanti, a former Malibu mayor and past president of Smart Coast California. He pointed out that sediment coming down the creek is the raw material for the beach. "We're preventing any rocks and soil that have washed down from the mountains to reach the ocean where they would fulfill their duty to create new sand," he said.
His suggestion was specific to this spot. After water passes under the Las Flores Bridge next to Duke's Malibu, it runs over a concrete-bottomed channel. Grisanti said the ideal approach would be for Caltrans to move the removed sediment out to the end of that concrete section, where waves can carry it off and spread it along the shore.
The work is now under way. Caltrans crews are removing mud and debris from under the Las Flores Creek Bridge, along the channel and its banks, and upstream and downstream of the bridge. They are also replacing a damaged culvert just north of Las Flores Canyon Road. The Malibu Times reported on October 1 that the job costs about $2.5 million and is scheduled to finish at the end of the year, weather permitting. Bealer, who first raised the sediment issue as host of the January meeting, is still asking for that follow-through. "If Mother Nature brings floods and mudslides this winter, we need Caltrans to be there to help us by taking care of the mud and the creek," she told the paper.
None of the reporting says where the removed sediment ends up. Grisanti's point still matters for anyone who walks the sand below Las Flores. The material being cleared from the creek this fall is the same kind of material that builds the beach.
Topanga Keeps Score
At the eastern end of the stretch, the cleanups come with numbers. On January 10, 2026, the Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains (RCDSMM) and the Surfrider Foundation's Los Angeles chapter held a cleanup at Topanga Beach. The two organizations published different totals:
| Source | Volunteers | Weight collected |
|---|---|---|
| RCDSMM, Topanga Lagoon project page | 50 | More than 400 pounds |
| Surfrider cleanup results database | 60 | 844.4 pounds |
The RCDSMM account includes a detail that matters more than either total. Volunteers found less burnt wood and rusted metal than at the previous cleanup. That fits Graves's description to the west. The fire debris is decreasing, but it keeps resurfacing a little at a time.
On September 19, Heal the Bay's Coastal Cleanup Day included a Topanga Beach site run with Kids Helping LA. The Pepperdine Graphic reported that volunteers collected microplastics, bags, bottles, metal and smoking-related waste. One participant said she saw "whole fences" being removed. No Topanga-specific totals had been published by the time of that report.
The beach itself has reopened. In July, Topanga New Times reported that RCDSMM's Stream Team had found a population of critically endangered Southern steelhead trout in Topanga Creek. The fish had survived the fire and the storm debris that followed, and they had bred. The team counted 21 young fish among the adults. "Words cannot describe how grateful we are that these fish found a way," the team wrote.
Where the Next Decisions Get Made
The Topanga Lagoon Restoration project holds its next virtual public meeting on Thursday, October 29, from 6 to 8 p.m. The project team will present updated designs for coastal access and trails, the PCH bridge, visitor and public-safety facilities, and a living shoreline. They will also take public feedback before the design reaches the 90 percent stage. You can register through Eventbrite. The listing promises live multilingual captioning and time for questions.
This is a long-term project. The project overview says construction could begin no earlier than 2029. That is why the design meetings matter. The decisions about trails and beach access at Topanga for the next generation are being made now, at the drawing stage.
Closer to Las Flores, a few public access points are still closed. As of September 18, 2026, the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority listed three nearby sites as closed until further notice:
- Maritime Rocks at Big Rock Beach, 20516–20466 Pacific Coast Highway
- Dolphin View Coastal Overlook at Big Rock Beach, 19812–19768 Pacific Coast Highway
- Miramar Coastal Overlook at Las Tunas Beach, 19620–19562 Pacific Coast Highway
These closures apply to specific stairways and overlooks, not to the shoreline as a whole. Taken together, the closed overlooks, the creek work and the lagoon design meetings show this stretch is still being repaired one site at a time. Neighbors have been doing much of that work themselves since March 2025.
For more than three decades, Irene Dazzan-Palmer has followed how East Malibu's shoreline, creeks and access points shape the value of the homes beside them. If you own along the Las Flores stretch and want to understand where your property stands as this coast recovers, we would be glad to prepare a confidential review. Request a Private Market Valuation.
