Malibu Creek Riparian Restoration

The Malibu Creek Riparian Restoration (MCRR) is a paid conservation workforce training project that will engage 25 underemployed adults from Black, Indigenous, and People of Color communities in restoring four acres of riparian/coastal stream corridor. The MCRR is an expansion of OBA’s larger Fire & Climate Resilience Restoration program—a federally-sanctioned apprenticeship certification program designed in compliance with the Federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act—that provides career access opportunities and pathways to upward mobility and long-term sustainable employment through training to become a certificated workforce in conservation. These programs are dedicated to the development of an ethnically diverse and inclusive workforce from historically underserved communities and provide training on wildland and urban fringe fire resilience, climate change mitigation and restoration, and conservation. The project will help participants build the connection between the health of creeks, watersheds, wetlands, the ocean, and communities, and employment opportunities typically not considered within this demographic.

MCRR is a project-based, experiential education program that will improve participants’ knowledge of Malibu Creek State Park and the value of wetlands ecosystems and riparian habitats.  Participants will be trained by experts from Malibu Creek State Park on how to identify, survey, and flag threatened, endangered, rare, or sensitive plants and animals—and the importance of surveying and flagging cultural sites. Participants will learn how to identify and inventory invasive non-native plant species in and adjacent to the 4-acre riparian habitat and appropriate removal and eradication techniques. Staff from State Parks will conduct hands-on, project site specific trainings on initial site preparation, strategic planting, and short- and long-term management strategies that will make this project site—and Malibu Creek State Park in general—more resilient to wildfires and climate change.