Thursday, April 9, 2026

Volunteers Launch Invasive Weed Removal Effort at Eaton Canyon

By EDDIE RIVERA

State, County, and City officials gather with California Service Corps members and volunteers after a busy morning clearing fire-prone invasive weeds from Eaton Canyon to kick off LA Climate Week.

With the spring comes the weeds.

So scores of volunteers fanned out across the still-closed Eaton Canyon on Wednesday morning, crouching low and working by hand to pull invasive plants from the soil in an effort to reduce wildfire risk and restore native habitat following last year’s devastating fire.

The event, held at the canyon’s back plateau, marked the official kickoff of Los Angeles Climate Week and brought together community members, state officials and nonprofit groups in a large-scale service project.

Kim Bosell, regional operations manager for the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation, said the work is both urgent and ongoing.

“We’re having the kickoff event for LA Climate Week where hundreds of volunteers have come to Eaton Canyon to help us remove non-native invasive species that are preventing the native plants from growing back after the Eaton Fire,” Bosell said.

The process is labor-intensive. Volunteers worked without machinery or herbicides, pulling weeds by hand across roughly a half-mile stretch of terrain. The goal, Bosell said, is to remove invasive plants before they go to seed—a seasonal race repeated each spring.

“It’s a long-term marathon,” she said. “The weeds are nonstop.”

Josh Fryday, director of the Governor’s Office of Service and Community Engagement, emphasized both the environmental and community-building aspects of the effort.

“We have volunteers from the area out here taking out invasive species,” Fryday said, noting the focus on mustard plants that can spread rapidly and increase fire danger. “We’re trying to make sure the seeds don’t fall before the spring bloom.”

Fryday also used the event to announce recruitment for more than 3,000 paid positions in the California Service Corps, a statewide initiative focused on climate action, disaster response and community service.

Local nonprofit L.A. Works, which helped organize the volunteer turnout, framed the project as both preventative and restorative.

“All of those invasive species burn really quickly when fires come through,” said Steven Davalos, the organization’s vice president of external affairs. “We’re removing that to provide space for native plants to thrive and to help prepare this park for reopening.”

Davalos estimated that volunteers could clear several acres during the morning effort, underscoring the scale of the challenge—and the impact of collective action.

While Wednesday’s event was a one-day mobilization, officials stressed that the work will continue year-round through smaller volunteer groups that regularly return to the canyon.

For Bosell, the message was simple: more hands are needed.

“We’ll take all the volunteers we can get,” she said.