Laguna de Santa Rosa Master Restoration Plan

The Laguna de Santa Rosa is an expansive freshwater wetland complex that hosts a rich diversity of plant and wildlife species, and is also home to a thriving agricultural community. Since the mid-19th century, modifications to the Laguna and its surrounding landscape have degraded habitat conditions for both wildlife and people. Together with partners at the Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation, and funded by Sonoma Water and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the goal of the Laguna de Santa Rosa Master Restoration Plan project is to develop a plan that supports ecosystem services in the Laguna—through the restoration and enhancement of landscape processes that form and sustain habitats and improve water quality—while considering flood management issues and the productivity of agricultural lands. 

The first phase of the project was the creation of the Restoration Vision for the Laguna de Santa Rosa. The report details a long-term vision for the landscape which highlights opportunities for multi-benefit habitat restoration and land management within the Laguna’s 100-year floodplain. It presents an understanding of the landscape functioning from past, present, and potential future perspectives. Starting with a picture of the historical ecology of the Laguna that details the magnitude of change in habitat conditions over the past two centuries, the document then presents an understanding of key physical processes that affect today’s Laguna.The restoration concepts described in the Visioni represent a potential future Laguna, and were developed and vetted through a series of workshops in which technical advisers, management advisers, and local landowners and stakeholders, shared their expertise and helped shape the concepts. 

The second phase of this project is the development of a Restoration Plan that will build from the Vision, describing near-term restoration concepts and identifying restoration targets. The targets and concepts will be determined in close coordination with the project technical advisors, stakeholders, and local landowners. The ultimate success of the Vision and the Restoration Plan will be driven by local landowner support and adequate funding for implementation, as well as an updated approach to landscape management within the Laguna’s surrounding watershed.