Malibu stuck in vicious grass-fire cycle [Video]

Malibu and the Santa Monica Mountains are in a dangerous cycle that makes them susceptible to frequent fires.

It’s a feedback loop, or, as experts call it, a “grass-fire cycle,” in which repeated fires kill native vegetation, allowing invasive species that fuel fires to flourish.

“It’s been happening for a long time in the Malibu Canyon,” said Alexandra Syphard with the Conservation Biology Institute. “There are pictures that show a before where it’s nice green, evergreen chaparral, and then the after, it’s the exact same area in Malibu Canyon where it’s just these sort of dried-out grasses.”

Syphard tells KNX News’ Karen Adams that with more frequent fires, fire-adapted native vegetation is being killed because it’s not getting the multiple years it needs to reestablish.

“But people are trying to plant vegetation with higher fuel moisture, meaning it’s less flammable, in hopes that that can sort of reduce the frequency of fire overall in the landscape,” Syphard …