Melissa works with Pepperdine University athletics as a nutritionist. Mark worked for years with the NFL doing strength and conditioning work, and is currently a sales representative for a toy company. They lost their home on the 100-acre Malibu Nature Preserve property; but because it’s the site of the former “Malibu Riding & Tennis Club,” they were able to move into what was the original clubhouse.
Melissa’s father bought the Malibu Riding & Tennis Club about 20 years ago. He then started a nonprofit land trust to preserve the property, transforming it into the Malibu Nature Preserve. “He’s conserved land all his life and was able to raise the grant funding to pay off the note,” Melissa explained. Following the purchase, some of the land was donated to nearby Leo Carrillo State Park and other agencies; the current 100 acres is what’s left.
“Over the years, we’ve hosted day-use programs for children’s’ groups, church and hiking retreats, Allied Artists of the Santa Monica Mountains, and yoga retreats,” Melissa said – adding that they had been working towards adding guest cottages and mobile homes for overnight hiking retreats.
“Dad comes out seven days a week as head of the nonprofit,” Melissa explained. “He does day-to-day land conservation and outdoor habitat restoration, such as getting rid of invasive, non-native plants like mustard. There’s also a lot of administrative office work, maintaining the buildings, recycled and repurposed structures, and mobile home units. After four years of work, we were only three to four months away from finishing the overnight units.”
The nature preserve is home to many of the special plants and animals of the Santa Monica Mountains, and Melissa and Mark saw evidence of that just two days after the fires. “We saw a dozen or more deer come down the driveway looking for creek water, along with lots of coyotes and quail.” In addition, a resident bobcat used to “hang out behind the units and greet our visitors.” And now, months after the fire, “A family of hawks has a nest with screeching chicks.”
During the fire, firefighters came onto the property, filled their trucks with water using three on-site fire hydrants, used the restrooms, and then left. The fire trucks didn’t stick around to help them put out the fire when it got to their property; instead, they all drove over to the neighbor’s house where there was no fire – and didn’t come back.
Following the main fire, Melissa and Mark worked 12 hours days for the next several days, hauling buckets of water from their swimming pool to put out spot fires and embers. They observed that burned-out tree stumps had the most embers, which were easier to see after dark.
As on-site caretakers of the nature preserve, Melissa and Mark were grateful that some of the buildings survived, which meant they still had a place to live. “We’re really fortunate that we can stay here, because a lot of people have nothing,” they said. The two are now living in the Riding & Tennis Club’s former clubhouse.
“Originally, we were going to move into the one surviving guest cottage, but it was too near the creek (in the middle of our property) and in danger of flooding. We were afraid of mudflows, and the cottage is all boarded up and not accessible. So for now, we’re staying in the offices of the clubhouse. There’s a commercial kitchen, but no washer or dryer.”
For the first six weeks after the fire, the clubhouse had no water or power so they stayed on a pull-out sofa bed at Melissa’s parents’ home in the San Fernando Valley (northeast of Malibu). “The dogs were traumatized by the fire,” they said. “Eventually, we made it back out here after getting power and water.
Unlike many of the fire victims, Melissa and Mark were hit with a double whammy: after the devastating fire came months of torrential rains that caused rock slides and debris flows. “The storms, mudflows and rock slides were the secondary disaster,” they said.
Assisted on weekends by volunteers from ‘Help California,’ they worked seven days a week to fill thousands of sandbags and help clear rocks out of the road and creek after every storm. Even Mark’s mom and stepdad were there, coming all the way from Iowa to help out for six weeks. The weekend volunteers were mostly creative types like photographers, but had extensive knowledge on how to operate the heavy equipment rented by the couple.
