With support from OCTA, a nearly 4-acre abandoned lot in Laguna Canyon is now an improved wildlife corridor linking Aliso and Wood Canyons and Laguna Coast Wilderness Parks. Part of the Laguna Canyon Foundation’s Big Bend Restoration Project, the property was restored with native oaks, sycamores and coastal sage scrub to provide better access for wildlife to more than 22,000 acres of adjacent open space. For more information about the Big Bend Restoration Project, click here.
This is the first of a dozen OCTA-funded restoration projects to be completed under the Measure M Freeway Environmental Mitigation Program, which allocates funds to acquire land and fund habitat restoration projects in exchange for streamlined project approvals for the 13 M2 freeway improvement projects. About 400 acres of preserved open space lands will be returned to their native habitat. To learn more about the Freeway Environmental Mitigation Program, click here.
“This project is another example of the tremendous conservation success of OCTA’s visionary Measure M2 Program,” said Derek Ostensen, Laguna Canyon Foundation Board Member. “Across Orange County over nearly 10 years, OCTA has completed pivotal conservation land acquisitions and habitat restorations considered to be among the highest countywide priorities by the environmental community.”
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