Tom Dudley stood at an old Fillmore watercress farm off a rural stretch of highway and described the dream. A forest of willow and cottonwood trees, shallow wetlands for wading birds and some deeper spots for ducks – all just a football field or so from what many call the last wild river in Southern California. The Santa Clara stretches 84 miles and through two counties from the San Gabriel Mountains to the ocean just south of Ventura Harbor. Over the past 20 years, millions of dollars have been invested to protect and restore the river, work that some say has reached a tipping point.