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This narrative is a compilation of emails, newsletters, volunteer updates, personal recollections, and internal messages that members received in the months following the devastating Los Angeles Fires of January 2025. It encapsulates the reality we endured—the profound shock of losing our cherished historic clubhouse, the subsequent storms that ravaged the area, the arduous season of enduring mud and debris, the gradual resurgence of community life, and the enduring hope that began to take root once more. This narrative was written by then Club president, Jim Angus.
Nature Friends Los Angeles Foundation
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A century-old clubhouse favored by artists and canyon dwellers burned to the ground in Los Angeles' Eaton fire.  Members say they will hand-build a new lodge, just as the club's German founders did. 
Forbes
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The Eaton fire erased a century-old Sierra Madre lodge in January, but not the resolve of its members who held their signature Oktoberfest on Saturday.  The rubble cleared and a stage built over the ruins, the 200-member Nature Friends club fired up its biergarten grill with shouts of “Prost!” and raised beer steins.
Los Angeles Times
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The finality of the wildfires' destruction has taken 10 more cherished buildings that showed the city's great diversity, including the quirky, chalet-style building built by Nature Friends over a century ago.
New York Times
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A century-old Bavarian-style lodge, hand-built by German immigrants in Sierra Madre, was reduced to charred timbers by the Eaton Fire in January 2025.  This video, drawn from coverage featured on CNN's Erin Burnett OutFront alongside other landmark buildings lost in the fires, steps inside the burned-out clubhouse and includes Nature Friends Los Angeles' president sharing how the community plans to rebuild stronger and more fire-resilient for the next hundred years.

Erin Burnett Outfront on CNN
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A century-old Naturefriends House in Sierra Madre, once a beloved gathering place for hikes, concerts, lectures, and Oktoberfest, was reduced to ashes in the January Los Angeles wildfires. This article from Naturefriends International looks back on the lodge's rich cultural and social life - and invites readers to explore how a global community is mourning the loss while keeping its spirit alive.
Naturefriends International
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One year after the Eaton Fire reduced the Sierra Madre clubhouse to ashes, Naturefriends International revisits how this 1924-built gathering place is slowly coming back to life—and what still lies ahead on the long road to rebuilding.  The story highlights a major turning point: the creation of the Nature Friends Los Angeles Foundation, which finally allows international supporters to donate directly and help ensure the house can one day rise again for future generations.
Naturefriends International
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