David Peterson

Sediment is a lifeblood of San Francisco Bay (Bay). It serves three key
functions: (1) create and maintain tidal marshes and mudflats, (2) transport
nutrients and contaminants, and (3) reduce impacts from excessive human-derived
nutrients in the Bay. Because of these important roles, we need a
detailed understanding of sediment processes in the Bay.

This report offers a conceptual understanding of how fine-grained sediment
(i.e. silt and finer, henceforth called fine sediment) moves around at different
scales within the Bay, now and into the future, to synthesize current knowledge
and identify critical knowledge gaps. This information can be used to support
Bay sediment management efforts and help prioritize funding for research
and monitoring. In particular, this conceptual understanding is designed to
inform future San Francisco Bay Regional Monitoring Program (RMP) work
under the guidance of the Sediment Workgroup of the RMP for Water Quality
in San Francisco Bay, which brings together experts who have worked on
many different components of the landscape, including watersheds and
tributaries, marshes and mudflats, beaches, and the open Bay. This report
describes sediment at two scales: a conceptual understanding of open-Bay
sediment processes at the Bay and subembayment scale (Chapter 2); and
a conceptual understanding of sediment processes at the baylands scale
(Chapter 3). Chapter 4 summarizes the key knowledge gaps and provides
recommendations for future studies.

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 Vision represent a potential future Laguna, and were developed and vetted through a series of workshops in which technical advisers, management advisers, tribal representatives, and local landowners and stakeholders shared their expertise and helped shape the concepts. 

The second phase of this project was the development of a Restoration Plan for the Laguna de Santa Rosa that was built from the Vision. The Restoration Plan was developed through a collaborative process that focused on moving forward identified restoration opportunities into conceptual designs that can be used to establish implementable restoration projects. The Restoration Plan includes the following elements:

• A restoration framework that offers a planning structure for landscape scale restoration that can be further developed and refined over time.
• Restoration project concepts in the Laguna’s 100-year floodplain developed from selected restoration opportunity areas shown in the Vision.
• Criteria for prioritizing and sequencing restoration project concepts.

The utilization of the Restoration Plan and the ultimate success of restoration efforts in the Laguna will require local landowner support and adequate funding to implement the restoration and manage and sustain the benefits through long-term stewardship. It will also require coordination among all the agencies responsible for managing the land and water within the Laguna and its surrounding watershed. With commitment and collaboration the Laguna