Voice of OC75%
Santana: CA Wildlife Officials Saved Creeks Near Doheny State Beach From OC Public Works 41%
By Norberto Santana Jr.0%
7/22/2026, 7:45:55 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 24 faulty reasoning types, including Appeal to Authority, Biased Writer Voice, and Post Hoc (False Cause), with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 18.8% saturation with 213 hits. Analysis detected 1,775 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,132 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 45.8% and a BS Rank of 41% (12,119 of 20,311 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 59.70% of the article peer group.
Trabuco Canyon Creek in San Juan Capistrano on Thursday, July 17, 2026.
A controversial plan by OC Public Works officials to abruptly trim large swaths of vegetation along the San Juan and Trabuco Creeks near Doheny State Beach has been delayed.
Following alarm bells rung by Creek Team activists last week, state Fish and Wildlife officials confirmed in writing on Monday that they intervened and asked OC Public Works officials to back off their plans.
The move raises questions whether OC Public Works’ streambed alteration agreements with the state allows such vegetation removal around sensitive habitat for endangered species.
“We asked OCPW to hold off on commencing on their scheduled work until we meet with them on Wednesday, July 22,” said Cort Klopping, a spokesman for the Department of Fish and Wildlife.
And while OC Public Works notice on the creek haircut said state regulators had signed off on the proposed action, it looks like they did not.
Questions were mounting about the nature of the action – coming on the heels of a June vote by county supervisors that seemingly granted a year-long reprieve to both creeks, in the form of a herbicide ban and a study to look at how best to manage vegetation near endangered species habitat.
[ Read : Santana: Is OC Public Works Declaring War on the San Juan and Trabuco Creeks?
]
Yet right on the heels of a vote to seemingly leave the creek alone while options were studied, public works crews were gearing up to descend on the creek to cut down vegetation by hand.
Creek Team activists – who have advocated over the past year for a non-toxic and more eco-friendly approach to Orange County’s flood control management – were shocked by the abrupt announcement from OC Public Works to cut down vegetation in the creeks.
Last Friday, they were even talking to supporters about potentially lining up along the channels during the planned work as a protest.
Instead, they appealed to state regulators.
“Creek Team is in constant contact with the regulatory bodies that monitor the actions of OCPW in our creeks and rivers,” said Brent Linas, who founded the group and now leads a team of volunteers alongside Bethany Nelms and Robert Beard.
“When this planned clearance was announced, CDFW (CA Dept. of Fish and Wildlife) confirmed that no such approval existed nor were they informed of this, despite OCPW explicitly stating such,” Linas said.
“Furthermore, the current Streambed Alteration Agreement issued by CDFW would never authorize such a destructive act in an endangered species habitat.”
State Fish and Wildlife spokesman Klopping said state regulators have had a meeting with OC Public Works on the books for weeks , the first of two scheduled meetings,
“We are meeting to assess their overall compliance program,” Klopping said.
“While they have a Lake and Streambed Alteration Agreement that allows non-native vegetation removal, the meeting with them is to determine whether they are in compliance with all the conditions of their permit,” he said.
OC Public Works officials responded to some of my questions about the planned work, which they said was delayed “to address community concerns.”
It seems like there’s a lack of clarity about what county supervisors actually authorized in June.
“My understanding was that County Public Works staff would pause the use of herbicides, study and thereafter analyze the alternatives available to safely manage the flood channels,” Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento wrote me in a Friday statement.
San Juan Creek in Orange County on Thursday, July 16, 2026.
Credit: JULIE LEOPO, Voice of OC
“The planned work is part of the pilot to study the feasibility and costs related to the manual and mechanical removal methods of vegetation in the San Juan and Trabuco Creek channels, as directed by the Board of Supervisors at the June 9 meeting ,” wrote OC Public Works spokeswoman Jaime Cargo.
Cargo said OC Public Works crews “will manually remove non-native plants and cut vegetation, including small trees, shrubs and bushes, down to the ground level.
Soil, roots and channel surfaces will not be disturbed except where necessary to remove non-native and invasive vegetation.”
The OC Public Works spokeswoman avoided my question about whether state regulators had actually reviewed and signed off on the OC Public Works plan, as the department’s July 15 announcement clearly stated.
Yet given the upcoming meeting with state regulators, it seems unlikely they did.
Cargo also confirmed that OC Public Works told county supervisors about their plans a day before the public announcement went out.
“We notified the Board of Supervisors via email on Tuesday, July 14,” Cargo wrote in an email response to questions.
That seems to contradict earlier public statements by Supervisor Katrina Foley – who represents the area on the board of supervisors.
“We learned about simultaneously with the public notice,” Foley wrote on July 15 in an email activists shared with the Voice of OC.
“We addressed in our meeting with CEO yesterday and requested more information about the proposed plan,” Foley wrote.
This week in a public statement, Foley left residents with the impression that her advocacy – as opposed to activists and state regulators – had caused OC Public Works to pause creek work.
San Juan Creek in Orange County on Thursday, July 16, 2026.
Credit: JULIE LEOPO, Voice of OC
“After communications and questions from my office and our Nontoxic Solutions subcommittee, OC Public Works agreed to temporarily pause the launch of our Pilot Program for manual vegetation management in San Juan and Trabuco Creeks,” Foley wrote this week on her Instagram.
“We appreciate staff’s willingness to collaborate on assessing impacts and the scope of manual removal.
My focus remains on ensuring safe practices and full transparency for our residents.”
It’s unclear to me who is serving on Foley’s Nontoxic Solutions subcommittee.
Yet ironically, I know who’s not been invited to participate – people from the Creek Team, the very group whose activism pushed Foley to create the advisory body.
Foley declined to answer my questions about the discrepancy between OC Public Works’ public notice detailing their proposed creek, which seemed to indicate state approval and recent comments by state regulators, who seemed to be in the dark on OC Public Works’ plans for the creek vegetation removal.
So much for full transparency.
Linas said it marks another chapter of vague bureaucracy in Orange County government.
“This episode highlights the county’s troubling relationship with the truth.
County staff seems content in lying to justify actions that they know are not legal.
Creek Team has been calling for new leadership in OC Public Works’ Flood Control group for months, and this troubling incident only strengthens our resolve to remove the current leadership.”
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