Right now, Malibu is as green as it gets. A series of storms drenched the hills and everywhere you look, green.

I love this spot at the top of the canyon, just a half-mile or so from where the paved county road gives way a dirt fire road and the houses fall away and it's just hills and arroyos and then more hills. We used to see coyotes here all the time, we'd see deer and quail and even the occasional bobcat. That's rare now and the reason is right in front of you.

See that fence? The person who's building a big, two-story house on that beautiful knoll has fenced the whole thing in. Thousands of feet of six-foot chain link have cut off all the wildlife corridors in the area. Animals that moved from neighboring canyons, hunted and mated in territory that had been theirs for decades are now fenced in. Or out. And another piece of our lovely Malibu is severed from the whole, turned into a trophy.