NPS Kicks Off First Paleontology Field Camp at Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area

By: Hailey Gregory, Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, SAMO Fund Paleontology Intern

Figure 1. A group of SAMO staff, field camp participants, and invited researchers  on a geologic and paleontological tour around Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.

Introduction

January 7, 2026, marked the beginning of the National Park Service’s first ever Paleontology Field Camp, which was held at Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area (SAMO) (Figure 1). The field camp was led by Southern Network paleontologist Aubrey Bonde and SAMO paleontology intern Hailey Gregory. Four undergraduate students, each focused on earth and environmental sciences, were selected to participate in the camp. The cohort included Ivory Morales from the University of California Los Angeles, Anneka Steen from Stanford University, Lena Miller from University of Colorado Boulder, and James Bartlinski from Appalachian State University. The students gathered at SAMO and took part in a weeklong field camp where they received hands-on experience with public lands and paleontological resources management. The students were led through the process of NPS-focused management practices by spending one day learning operations from park staff, three days in the field, two days in museum collections, and one day creating paleontological educational materials for the park. All of the work contributed to the ongoing paleontological program at SAMO.

Over the course of the week, students navigated the complex geologic and paleontological histories of the park, starting with the Late Cretaceous, approximately 90 million years ago. The students were each assigned a specific geological formation to focus their projects (Figure 2) and at the end of the week presented a full paleoenvironmental and paleoecological reconstruction for their geological period/formation. The students presented their projects to SAMO leadership, interpretation and education, and resources staff and did an exceptional job demonstrating their understanding of the extensive geologic and biologic change preserved in the fossil record at SAMO.

Figure 2. Geologic time scale and corresponding formations that were included as part of the SAMO field camp student projects. The geology of SAMO stretches back to the Jurassic, approximately 157 million years ago, although these several formations were chosen for the student projects as they are among the most fossiliferous units at SAMO.

Image Description of Geologic Time Scale

SAMO Geology Through Time

The field camp students had never participated in any NPS programming prior to the camp, other than spending time recreating in various park units. For this reason, Day 1 of the field camp was spent at SAMO headquarters to meet the staff and begin to understand the wide-ranging scope of work that everyone does for the park. This served as essentially a crash-course for the students to be introduced to National Park Service operations and resources management. This day also provided an opportunity for Aubrey to provide the students with another crash course, an overview of SAMO’s geologic formations, paleontological resources, and history of fossil work and research. Because SAMO has an incredibly complex geologic history capturing a coastal marine setting and active tectonic boundary over the past 157 million years, the orientation was essential for the students to better understand SAMO’s rocks and fossils before heading to the field. The classroom session was put to good use the next day, because Day 2 was spent taking an orientation geo-tour around the mountains. This tour was co-led by local geology titans John Alderson and Bruce Lander, both extremely well-versed in the geology and paleontology of the recreation area. John and Bruce each shared their roughly 50 years of effort and research investigating the formations in the mountains and provided the students with invaluable information from their career-long investigations into the rocks and fossils of the mountains (Figure 3).

Figure 3. Field photo taken during Day 2 of the field camp.

Museum Days

In paleontology, field and museum work go hand-in-hand. Students spent two days getting a behind-the-scenes look at both the vertebrate and invertebrate collections of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (NHMLAC) (Figure 4). Because of the massive holdings from the Santa Monica Mountains that are maintained by the NHMLAC, with literally thousands of fossil specimens, they are a valued partner and collaborator with SAMO. The vertebrate collections visit was hosted by Juliet Hook, Collections Manager of Vertebrate Paleontology, and the invertebrate collections visit was hosted by Austin Hendy, Curator of Invertebrate Paleontology. Juliet and Austin shared a wealth of information with the students about their work and background experience, job opportunities in their fields, and their day-to-day operations as museum officials. In addition, each student was able to study fossils from each of their assigned projects’ geologic formations that were in the collections, further piecing together SAMO’s geologic and paleontological history.

Figure 4. Field camp visit to the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County vertebrate paleontology collections. Group pictured in front of the Dueling Dinos exhibit.

Field Days

Geospatial Work

The field camp also assisted with a SAMO paleo program geospatial dataset need. The paleontological resource database maintained by SAMO contains more than 3,000 localities compiled from hundreds of museum and literature sources. In compiling and reviewing the data it has become very clear there is a significant amount of redundancy in the reported localities, as well as many examples of poor geospatial accuracy. These issues make effective monitoring difficult. The first steps toward taming this massive and chaotic dataset were to evaluate the localities and their metadata and identify clusters of potential duplicates, and to identify sites that require ground truthing for accuracy. This mind-melting undertaking was done by SAMO paleo intern Hailey Gregory prior to the camp. Hailey prepped the clusters to evaluate for redundancy and geospatial accuracy in the field, and away we went during the camp! The data gathered in the field allowed us to identify nearly 50 localities that could be considered duplicates and were reduced to roughly a dozen localities, all of which are now part of the active SAMO paleo monitoring program. This effort is just the start to cut down on “noise” in the data set produced by the re-recording of localities over multiple generations of research or multiple sources or organizations, and will improve overall monitoring efficiency.

In preparations for the camp, Hailey also performed field trip reconnaissance, accompanied by SAMO archeologist Nicole Kulaga. One unique thing about these mountains near Los Angeles is the steep topography with winding roads and speeding sports cars, making road cut exploration a safety hazard. Hailey’s recon allowed our caravan of campers to more safely access and examine geological outcrops. Two field days were spent focusing on specific issues/topics in NPS paleontological resource management. One day focused on surveying, monitoring, and mitigation and the other focused on fire and environmental change, preparation and adaptive management strategies.

Figure 5. Field camp student Anneka Steen recording notes during a field day focused on paleontological resources management and monitoring.

Paleontological Surveying, Monitoring & Mitigation

Paleontological surveying is crucial for understanding the diversity and volume of resources in any park. Currently, SAMO has the largest number of paleontological localities of any NPS unit, yet still requires additional surveying to cover the full recreation area. Conducting surveys at SAMO during the field camp aimed to provide coverage for previously unsurveyed areas, assess the potential for fossil preservation in different geologic formations within the park, and identify high priority areas for future monitoring.

Monitoring is an ongoing management activity that requires cyclic observation and documentation of fossil localities to assess risk factors, preservational integrity, and public misuse. The surveys and monitoring work gave the campers insight on how to create NPS monitoring plans to protect and preserve paleontological resources in situ.

We also discussed the process of mitigation paleontology by visiting a recent landslide site that wiped out part of an access road (Figures 5 and 6). The long-term goal is to repair the road for access by the park, utility agencies, and emergency responders. However, because the slide occurred in a highly fossiliferous formation, our team walked through the process of evaluating the slide for paleontological resources. The group then discussed recommendations for how to conduct paleontological monitoring, which includes data collection and potentially salvage or stabilization of the resources.

Figure 6. Field camp students Anneka Steen (upper left) and Ivory Morales (lower right) assisting with a paleontological mitigation survey after a landslide event.

Fire & Environmental Change Management Strategies

Our last field day focused on wildland fire impacts and other environmental preparation and adaptation needs. Wildland fire is an ever-present management concern at SAMO. More than half of the recreation area has been impacted by fires in just the last 8 years, most recently by the Palisades Fire in January 2025. The destruction of communities and resources due to fires is undeniable, and paleontological resources are no exception. With atmospheric alteration leading to environmental changes, natural and anthropogenic disasters have become more frequent and more devastating, and we are beginning to gain an understanding of fire and other related impacts on fossils. Read a previous NPS Park Paleontology article on this subject.

Fire damage to fossils occurs both directly and indirectly. The flames can directly damage the surface of fossils through deep charring, alteration, or completely burning away delicate carbonized fossils. Rocks may flake and crack from intense heat. When a fire burns across mountainous areas with thick vegetation, it can destabilize soils on steep slopes, unearthing fossils that were previously hidden within the soil. The newly exposed fossils then become vulnerable to further damage and theft if not properly mitigated and monitored.

Figure 7. Weathered pectinid (scallop) impressions from Fossil Ridge Trail at Topanga Canyon State Park. This location was impacted by the Palisades Fire in 2025, and fossils show signs of structural and superficial damage from the fires as well as signs of vandalism (graffiti).

Fire is just one of many factors involved in environmental change management concerns. Sea level rise is another, and can lead to coastlines becoming more susceptible to erosion; storms may become more frequent and/or intense; both of these things can lead to more mudflows and landslides. These factors must be taken into consideration when coming up with management plans to protect non-renewable paleontological resources.

SAMO works with numerous partner land managers within the recreation area, including California State Parks (CSP). One of the locations we visited to discuss fire impacts was at Topanga Canyon State Park’s Fossil Ridge Trail, located in the Palisades Fire burn perimeter (Figures 7 and 8). This area was initially mitigated last year, after the fire, with thousands of Miocene marine fossils identified and salvaged, and is on a prescribed monitoring schedule. Monitoring allows us to identify the rate of slope re-stabilization as vegetation grows back. The field camp students were able to assist with carrying out monitoring on the trail, which was coincident with the one-year anniversary of the fire. Students participated in documenting new fossil finds, adding several new localities to our database, and inventoried dozens of additional fossils during the visit.

Figure 8. Field students assist with paleontological monitoring along Fossil Ridge Trail in the Palisades Fire burn perimeter. One year after the fire and the group discussed the process of succession and vegetation recovery that acts as a natural assist to stabilizing the slope and slowing erosion.

Conclusions and the Future of NPS Paleo Field Camps

This camp serves as a model showing the mutual benefits of student participation in NPS-led paleontology programs. When students step into a national park, they enter a living classroom unlike any other and having subject matter experts by their side transforms the experience entirely. Learning directly from paleontological public land managers gives students access to knowledge that no textbook can fully capture. Through this camp, the students developed a deeper sense of natural investigation and stewardship that stays with them long after they've returned to the classroom, planting the seeds for future paleontologists, scientists, environmentalists, and informed citizens who understand the value of preserving these irreplaceable places and resources. The students also contributed to the park in a number of important ways, such as:

• Field work: Four additional sets of eyes assisting with surveying, monitoring, impact assessments, and inventories of paleontological localities and specimens boosted the 2026 paleontology workplan for the SAMO paleo program.

• Creating educational materials and media: The paleoenvironmental reconstruction projects that the students completed and presented to SAMO staff are now available for use by park staff, especially useful for the interpretation and education division as tools for outreach materials and paleontology awareness (Figure 9).

• Informing interdisciplinary park staff on the importance of fossil resources: The SAMO staff is large with many different areas of responsibility, and the students assisted with communicating fossil protection protocols to interdisciplinary staff. This ensures that everyone who works in and around fossil-rich environments understands their role in preserving these scientific treasures.

• Enhancing work with partners (CSP & NHMLAC): The recreation area is a mosaic of different land owners, so partner relations are essential for a unified and successful management and conservation plan. The students were able to experience the benefits and contribute work to these valued partnerships.

Figure 9. Paleoart of SAMO 20–18 million years ago (Topanga Canyon Formation). Based on fossils and geology, it shows a shallow marine ecosystem with invertebrates, fish, sharks, and marine mammals, then sea-level fall revealing land and preserving terrestrial mammals.

The field camp’s success emphasizes the importance of student collaborations as a way to protect paleontological resources. The ability to cultivate undergraduates’ interest in paleontology as well as make large strides in paleontological resources management demonstrates how beneficial the field camp was and we look forward to 2027 to, hopefully, ring in the 2nd Annual NPS Paleontology Field Camp!