Serrano Creek intruded into Matt Rayl’s life rather rudely ten years ago by ripping out a large chunk of the parking lot at his stable in Lake Forest, where he boards horses. Five years later, in the El Niño winter of 1997–98, it took out more of the lot and damaged other creekside properties. “About 5,000 homes and businesses are adjacent to the creek,” Rayl said. “Something had to be done.”

The behavior of this six-mile Orange County stream had changed in recent years. As the watershed was developed and some reaches were lined with concrete, runoff patterns were affected and the watershed was destabilized. The creek flows naturally from Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park, among willows, sycamores, and other riparian vegetation, but it is a concrete-encased channel through two residential developments. In Lake Forest it is mostly natural again. It continues through Irvine and empties into San Diego Creek, the principal tributary of Newport Bay.

With more ground paved and built over, storm water that earlier would have been absorbed by the soil and vegetation was rushing at accelerated speed into the stream, scouring the banks and creekbed, tearing out plants and trees, and carrying away massive amounts of soil. During the winter of 1997–98 an estimated 400,000 cubic yards of sediment were carried into the bay by Serrano Creek.

The problem confronting Rayl, his neighbors, and the City of Lake Forest was, therefore, also a problem for Orange County and all those concerned with Newport Bay, where costly dredging has repeatedly been required. Yet the stretch running through Lake Forest was of greatest concern to those who lived near it.

Rayl and his allies wanted flood control, but not the standard kind. “‘No grouted rock’ was our mantra,” he said. “In Orange County, the desired surface still seems to be either concrete or riprap. Creeks aren’t called creeks here. They are ‘channels.’ On maps, Serrano Creek is ‘F19’.”

In 1997, at the urging of residents, the City launched a planning process to assess options for flood management, recreation, and habitat improvements along the creek.

To make sure he could participate in an informed way, Rayl traveled to a conference on erosion and creek restoration “to learn the vocabulary.” He came away with fresh ideas and information from other watersheds and then, using his own funds and resources, organized a conference in his own community in 1998, featuring an innovative hydrologist, Robert Delk. A second conference was held in 2000, with two more creek experts.

City officials and engineers from the Orange County Flood Control District attended, and new ideas gained currency, according to Kathie L. Matsuyama, senior landscape architect in the Watershed and Coastal Resources Division of the Public Facilities and Resources Department of Orange County. The planning process evolved into the Serrano Creek Collaborative Use Plan, a key objective of which was to keep the creek as natural as possible. Riprap would be necessary in some places, but native plantings, not grout, would fill spaces among the rocks.

The Plan led to the $2.79-million Serrano Creek Stabilization Project, which is designed to restore 1.1 miles of the creek in Lake Forest through the installation of innovative stabilizing features and planting of native riparian vegetation. Funding has been secured from city, county, federal, and state sources, including the Coastal Conservancy, which contributed $500,000 to the project in January 2002.

Meanwhile, Rayl and a group of business people and homeowners with properties near the creek formed the nonprofit Serrano Creek Conservancy to preserve and restore natural reaches, and to remove alien invasive plants and replace them with natives. They joined the city and county on the Stabilization Project, but even before it was finished they began to work on the ground. “These projects take years to pull off—funding, studies—and some people panic,” Rayl explained. “I have construction equipment that I used for two restoration projects.” At one spot where erosion had left a barren, almost vertical bank, the results are clearly evident: the slope has been compacted and reinforced with rocks, and native plants now grow on the bank.

All this, Rayl said, has had good coverage in the local press. Serrano Creek—though it may still be F19 on some maps—is now far more widely known and appreciated. Most of the Stabilization Project’s restoration work has also been completed.

Matt Rayl’s achievement has influenced flood control planning in Orange County, Matsuyama said. She loves to tell the story because “it shows that individual action can make a difference.”