10 lagunabeachindy . com MARCH 24 , 2023
GUEST OPINION :
Saving Aliso Creek , A 50-Year Anniversary
By BoB BorthwiCk
Why doesn ’ t Aliso Creek look like most of the rivers in southern California — those desolate concrete channels that replace the vegetation and naturally flowing meandering streams ? What inspired Orange County to plan for a natural stream with trails that the public can enjoy ? In 1973 , a group of volunteers envisioned that Aliso Creek could be preserved , but this was a “ last stand ” effort . The county was growing so fast that if the natural Aliso Creek was lost , all the other open spaces , including the Laguna Greenbelt , could also be lost to development .
Aliso Creek / Horseshoe Bend at the southern portion of creek in 1973 . Photo / Bob Borthwick
Approximately 26 volunteers , under the auspices of the Saddleback Area Coordinating Council and UCI Extension , formed the Study Team on Aliso Creek . The purpose was to save the 19-mile-long Aliso Creek from channelization and to make land-use recommendations , such as trails , for the entire creek corridor from the Cleveland National Forest in upper El Toro to the ocean at Aliso Beach . I was part of this study team .
The group met weekly from November 1973 until August 1974 . Guest speakers , such as noted landscape architect Francis Dean , and local planners , engineers and naturalists , inspired and advised us .
Saturday field trips hiking the creek created detailed familiarity with conditions on the ground as we examined specific issues .
Our study team leader was Corona del Mar architect Ron Yeo ,
a former Orange County Planning Commissioner .
Ron led the UCI Open Space Program for “ Project 21 ,” a plan to guide growth in Orange County into the twenty-first century .
Five of the 26 members were from Laguna Beach : Fred Lang , Judith Hamburger , Steve Malefyt , Van Stephens and myself . The others were from Leisure World / El Toro / Mission Viejo area and included several county planners and engineers who lived in the area and participated as individuals . Leisure World [ now Laguna Woods ] participants included retired teachers , hikers , equestrians and natural history experts . Other team contributors were representatives of local planning and engineering firms .
During our meetings and field trips , we brainstormed land-use issues , vehicular and pedestrian circulation , potential trail locations , and related recommendations . We were emphatic in avoiding the postwar concrete channelization that had already devastated Aliso Creek in the first residential subdivisions north of the 5 Freeway in the 1960s .
Our final report was titled “ Aliso Creek : Forest to the Sea .” Ron Yeo
BORTHWICK PAGE 14
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