Marti Witter has worked at the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area as the fire ecologist since 2001.  The Santa Monica Mountains are a microcosm of the problems found throughout southern California where natural habitat for hundreds of native plant and animal species intermix with urban sprawl, and large wildfires are a regular occurrence.  Her job is to share the latest fire science about southern California shrublands to guide the fire management practices in our park. Their goal is to preserve the park's unique natural resources and to reduce fire hazards in our local communities.  Marti works with the central and southern California region of the California Fire Science Consortium to make scientific findings easily available to land managers.