Lake Forest creek project to help improve bay

Alex Katz

NEWPORT BEACH -- Efforts to repair the eroded and polluted Quiet Oak

Creek in Lake Forest will have a trickle-down effect on the health of

Upper Newport Bay, which is where the creek’s runoff ends up.

Quiet Oak Creek is in Serrano Creek Park off of Serrano Road and Toledo

Way. It slows to a trickle in the dry season, when the water is “all

runoff from lawns and people washing their cars,” said Gary Beeler, a

founder of the Serrano Creek Conservancy.

Thursday marked the beginning of the conservancy’s restoration project,

which will include building new banks, moving rocks to slow erosion from

a small waterfall and adding plants to filter pollutants, said

conservancy founder Matt Rayl, who donated tractors and hired workers for

the project.

Quiet Oak Creek’s runoff now carries fertilizer, oil and other pollutants

that end up in Serrano Creek and the bay.

Planting native plants such as cattails and reeds in the creek will “take

out fertilizers and also help break up the petroleum products, the gas

and oil and stuff like that,” Beeler said.

He said the plants also would bring more birds and wildlife into the

area.

The conservancy also will widen banks to slow the creek and decrease

erosion.

The conservancy is a group of homeowners associations, residents and

businesses dedicated to halting erosion of Serrano Creek and beautifying

its banks.

Similar repairs are planned for Serrano Creek, which has been damaged by

10 years of heavy flooding and polluted by runoff from developments.

Volunteers can sign up for conservancy’s Nov. 20 planting project by

calling (949) 768-5921.