AAt the top of Mount Lee, in the heart of Los Angeles, the wind is calm. Two red-tailed hawks sail overhead, barely flapping as they ride the thermal air like surfers on a wave. Next to the giant letters of the Hollywood sign, the city seems peaceful. On a clear day, blocks and blocks are revealed below and the sky reveals views as far as Catalina Island, 10 miles away across the Pacific.
This is the beauty seen on the Hollywood sign.
The sign sits on a hill in Griffith Park, which, at about five times the size of Central Park, is the city’s largest municipal park. The letters have long been an international symbol for the inhabitants of the metropolis – of dreams, cinematic ambition and achievement. But it is also a mark of the environmental wealth of the region.
Because the area is closed to the public, it has become a favorite spot for animals seeking respite from the city. There are birds nesting in the sign, snakes curled at its base, bobcats roaming around the letters. It’s the backdrop that made the famous wild mountain P-22 a Los Angeles icon when a 2013 National Geographic photograph showed it prowling at night with the Hollywood Sign lit up in the background.
Now, a team of scientists is preparing to equip the letters with cameras, capable of capturing any fires the basin might experience. The sign guards are collaborating with Torch Systems, a technology company that uses solar-powered sensors, on an AI fire detection service that can identify smoke from miles away. Fires are considered the biggest risk in the area, especially since visitors may bring lit cigarettes into the park.
On a recent Wednesday, the Guardian climbed the mountain with the team to study the sign’s surroundings. As we put on gloves, skirt a steep trail, and rappel down a private trail to the letters, mounds of coyote scat constantly remind us who has hiked these trails before us.
“Los Angeles is about nature,” says Diana Wright, official guardian of the Hollywood Sign Trust. She points to the hillside, part of the 4,310 acres, or about 6.5 square miles, that exist in the shadow of the sign. “We’re inside this huge natural park – much bigger than Central Park – and also much more indigenous. And then you have this man-made sign that’s supposed to resist landslides and landslides and winds.”
The park is home to many creatures. The Center for Educational Research at the University of California, Los Angeles, has designated Griffith Park an Ecologically Significant Area, in part for its crucial role “as a corridor for all gene flow and species movement between the Santa Monica, San Gabriel, and Verdugo Mountains.” Researchers have documented approximately 200 species of birds in the park, as well as 50 species of butterflies and 40 species of mammals.
As in many Los Angeles neighborhoods, the sign began as a publicity stunt – and a temporary one. It was originally built of tin and telephone poles in 1923, to advertise a local housing development called “Hollywoodland.” Eventually, the “land” section was removed. Over the years, the structures have deteriorated. Hugh Hefner led a campaign in 1978 to replace the letters with huge steel beams embedded in concrete foundations.
Over the century, it became a real anchor point of city life. Wright points to streetlights in downtown Los Angeles that are designed to resemble New York and other parts of the city where scenes of the Parisian city are filmed.
“A lot of the city is designed to look like other places because of our experience filming,” Wright says. “The sign provides that sense of place that so many areas of the city lack.” She thinks that’s why it’s often the sign that’s blown up in movies — or photographed when something unusual, like a once-in-a-decade snowstorm, happens.
The sign may now have a stronger foothold on earth, but it also faces challenges. Mount Lee is steep, and the hillside, as well as the animal habitat it supports, faces risks from earthquakes, climate change, changes in precipitation, and events such as El Niño. Preserve officials have plans underway to clear brush to reduce fire risks, but they must balance erosion control, fire concerns and clear views of the sign.
Wright and the other caretakers are also developing a plan with the city to plant more native California flora and potentially create a super bloom of native flowers near the sign. “The Hollywood sign is a true celebration of California,” Wright says. “It should be beautiful and stunning in its natural splendor.”
Will letters still be there in 100 years? And what will the wildlife around it then look like? Wright says it all depends on the land underneath. “The hillside is going to define what the sign will look like in the future,” she says, noting that the entire city might look different after a big environmental upheaval like an earthquake. “I think it’s a real metaphor for Los Angeles in general.”
But that day, there was only blue sky and lizards moving away from us, in the shadow of giant letters.
Gn Health
