development. The Wood Canyon Emergent Wetland was constructed in 2005 at the head of Wood Canyon Creek in Aliso Viejo, and consists of a series of retaining ponds that slow down stormwater and support the growth of riparian vegetation. In June 2017 the Dairy Fork Wetland and Habitat Restoration Project, also in Aliso Viejo, was completed at a cost of $1.3 million. The project was designed to collect and treat urban runoff from the Dairy Fork tributary basin. Water flows into a series of pools where it is filtered by vegetation and bacteria are killed by prolonged exposure to sunlight, before entering of restored riparian habitat along Aliso Creek. This was expected to reduce dry season pollutants by as much as 99 percent. In October 2017 the Laguna Ocean Foundation presented a concept restoration plan for the Aliso Creek estuary, which was endorsed by Orange County Supervisor Lisa Bartlett and Senator Patricia Bates (R-Laguna Niguel). The project would remove a parking lot and artificial turf on the north side of Highway 1 in order to restore the estuary to its original size. The estuary restoration also depends on reducing the dry weather flow in Aliso Creek, which would be accomplished by diverting a portion of the creek's flow at the Coastal Treatment Plant and feeding it into the existing recycled water system. This would lower the frequency with which water breaches the sandbar separating the estuary from the Pacific Ocean, enhancing habitat stability for species such as the tidewater goby and western pond turtle. In 2018, the sandbar was not breached over the summer for the first time in ten years. Parks and preservation The Cleveland National Forest is the oldest public land in the Aliso Creek watershed, although it only encompasses a very small portion of the headwaters. The upper Aliso Creek originally became part of the Trabuco Cañon Forest Reserve – one of the first established after the Forest Reserve Act of 1891 – in 1893, before President Theodore Roosevelt formally established the Cleveland National Forest in 1908. Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park, which also contains a small portion of the Aliso Creek headwaters, was set aside in the early 1900s on land donated by Dwight Whiting from the Rancho Cañada de los Alisos. At the other end of the creek, Aliso Beach has been used as a recreation area since the early 20th century, when the Thurston family