LA’s Scouting troops lost their camp in the Palisades. Now they’re working to heal the land

Noah Haggerty

Los Angeles Times (TNS)

LOS ANGELES — Elliot Copen, 17, was worried the Scouting America camp he had visited dozens of times in an undeveloped canyon of the Santa Monica Mountains would feel empty.

The Palisades fire roared down the canyon 11 months ago, destroying the historic lodge and its Hogwarts-like interior (albeit without the “flying balls,” Copen noted), a smattering of cabins and the trading post where Scouts would buy candies and memorabilia. Weeks later, heavy rains sent mud and debris careening into the canyon, burying sections of the camp in feet of dirt.

Copen, an Eagle Scout with Troop 67 in Santa Monica and a leader in the Scouts’ honor society Order of the Arrow, had seen the videos online of what the disasters had done to the camp where he had made so m