Atop Mount Lee, in the heart of Los Angeles, the wind is quiet. Two red-tailed hawks sail above, barely flapping as they coast the thermal air like surfers on a wave. Standing beside the giant letters of the Hollywood sign, the city seems peaceful. On a clear day, blocks and blocks of homes unfold beneath and the skies reveal sights all the way to Catalina Island – 10 miles out, across the Pacific.
That’s the beauty seen from the Hollywood sign.
The sign sits on a hillside in Griffith Park, which, at about five times the size of Central Park, is the largest municipal park in the city. The letters have long been an international symbol for human residents in the metropolis – of dreams, film-making ambition and success. But it’s also a hallmark of the region’s environmental richness.
Because the area is closed off from the public, it has become a favorite of animals seeking respite from the city. There are birds nesting in the sign, snakes curled up at its base, bobcat roaming around the letters. It was the backdrop that made the famous wild mountain P-22 into an LA icon when a 2013 National Geographic photograph captured him prowling at night with the illuminated Hollywood sign in the background.
Now, a team of scientists is preparing to outfit the letters with cameras, able to capture any fire outbreaks that the basin may experience. The sign’s caretakers 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. Fire is considered the area’s largest anticipated risk, particularly as visitors may bring lit cigarettes into the park.
On a recent Wednesday, the Guardian hiked up the mountain with the team to survey the environment of the sign. As we don gloves, skirt a steep trail and rappel down a private trail to the letters, mounds of coyote scat is a constant reminder of who has walked these paths before us.
“Los Angeles is butted up against nature,” says Diana Wright, official caretaker for the Hollywood Sign Trust. She gestures around the hillside, part of the 4,310 acres, or about 6.5 sq miles, that exist in the shadow of the sign. “We’re inside this huge natural park – way bigger than Central Park – and also much more native. And then you’ve got this man-made sign of it that’s meant to withstand rockslides and landslides and winds.”
The park is home to many creatures. The Educational Research Center at the University of California, Los Angeles, has designated Griffith Park a Significant Ecological Area, in part for its crucial role “as a corridor for any gene flow and species movement between the Santa Monica, San Gabriel and Verdugo Mountains”. Researchers have documented about 200 species of birds in the park, along with 50 species of butterflies and 40 species of mammals.
Like many parts of Los Angeles, the sign was originally a publicity stunt – and a temporary one. It was originally constructed of tin and telephone poles in 1923, to advertise a local housing development called “Hollywoodland”. Eventually, the “land” section was dropped. Over the years, the structures deteriorated. Hugh Hefner led a campaign in 1978 to replace the letters with massive steel beams set in concrete foundations.
Over the century, it became a real anchor point for life in the city. Wright points to streetlights in downtown Los Angeles that are designed to resemble New York, and other parts of the city where Parisian city scenes are filmed.
“Much of the city is designed to look like other places due to our filming background,” says Wright. “The sign offers that sense of place that so many parts of the city lack.” She thinks that is why it is often the sign that is blown up in movies – or photographed when something unusual, like a once-in-a-decade snowstorm happens.
The sign may have stronger footholds in the earth now, but it is also facing challenges. Mount Lee is steep, and the hillside, and the animal habitat it is home to faces risks from earthquakes, climate change, changing rainfall and events such as El Niño. The conservancy caregivers have ongoing projects to clear brush to keep fire dangers down, but they have to balance erosion control, fire concerns and unobstructed 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 native flower super bloom near the sign. “The Hollywood sign is such a celebration of California,” Wright says. “It should be beautiful and stunning in its natural glory.”
Will the letters still be here in a 100 years? And what will the wildlife surrounding it look like then? Wright says it all depends on the land beneath. “The hillside is going to define what the sign is like in the future,” she says, pointing out that the whole city could look different after a big environmental shakeup like an earthquake. “I think that’s a real metaphor for Los Angeles in general.”
But on that day, it was only blue skies and lizards scuttling away from our footsteps, in the shadow of giant letters.