BOLINAS LAGOON ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION PROJECT U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Don Slack Ralph Camiccia RECOMMENDATIONS for RESTORATION AND MANAGEMENT August 2008 Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council Bolinas Lagoon Restoration Project Working Group Working Group members Bruce Bowser, Chair Sanctuary Advisory Council Member, GFNMS Gordon Bennett Sierra Club Representative Ralph Camiccia Geologist, Bolinas Resident Josh Collins, Ph.D. Landscape Ecologist, San Francisco Estuary Institute Rudi Ferris Recreational/Subsistence Fisher, Bolinas Rod & Boat Club Ted Grosholz, Ph.D. Estuarine Ecologist, University of California, Davis Gwen Heistand Biologist, Audubon Canyon Ranch Dick Kamieniecki Seadrift Representative Brannon Ketcham Hydrologist, Point Reyes National Seashore Bucky Mace Bolinas Lagoon Foundation Tom Moore Fisheries Biologist, California Department of Fish & Game Chuck Morton Caltrans Representative Nick Nidzieko Environmental Fluid Mechanics Lab, Stanford University Gary Page Co-Director Wetlands Ecology Division, PRBO Conservation Science Staff Sage Tezak Bolinas Lagoon Restoration Coordinator, NOAA, GFNMS Karen Reyna Acting Ecosystem Protection Coordinator, NOAA, GFNMS Maria Brown Sanctuary Superintendent, NOAA, GFNMS Bill Carmen, Ph.D. Ecology Consultant, Marin County Open Space District Bill Brostoff, Ph.D. Coastal & Wetlands Ecologist, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers A partnership with Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary, Marin County Open Space District & the United States Army Corps of Engineers Bolinas Lagoon Ecosystem Restoration Project Recommendations for Restoration and Management Prepared by: A Working Group of the Sanctuary Advisory Council Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary 991 Marine Drive The Presidio San Francisco, CA 94129 With assistance from: Marin County Open Space District Marin County Civic Center 3501 Civic Center Drive, Room 415 San Rafael, California 94903 and United States Army Corps of Engineers San Francisco District 1455 Market Street San Francisco, CA 94103-1398 This page intentionally left blank Table of Contents Executive Summary.................................................................................................................................... 6 Section 1. Introduction..................................................................................................................... 10 1.1 Bolinas Lagoon: A Wetland of International Importance..................................................... 10 1.2 Natural Processes and Constant Change............................................................................... 10 1.3 Need for Action..................................................................................................................... 11 1.4 Intellectual Framework Implemented by the Working Group.............................................. 15 1.5 Project Justification............................................................................................................... 18 Section 2. Restoration recommendations in the Locally Preferred Plan .................................... 24 2.1 Objective 1: Restore natural sediment transport and ecological functions........................... 24 2.2 Objective 2: Identify and manage introduced species .......................................................... 34 2.3 Objective 3: Protect water quality......................................................................................... 35 Section 3. Management Recommendations for Bolinas Lagoon.................................................. 38 3.1 Objective 1: Restore natural sediment transport and ecological functions........................... 38 3.2 Objective 2: Identify and manage introduced species .......................................................... 42 3.3 Objective 3: Protect water quality......................................................................................... 43 Section 4. Framework for an Adaptive Management and Monitoring Program....................... 46 4.1 Adaptive Management.......................................................................................................... 46 4.2 Monitoring ............................................................................................................................ 46 Section 5. Conclusions...................................................................................................................... 48 5.1 Current Process and Public Involvement.............................................................................. 48 5.2 Implementation Strategies and Project Timeline.................................................................. 49 5.3 Overarching Challenges........................................................................................................ 50 5.4 Future of Bolinas Lagoon ..................................................................................................... 50 Acknowledgements................................................................................................................................... 51 References................................................................................................................................................. 52 Appendix................................................................................................................................................... 56 I. Response to Comments..................................................................................................... 56 II. Project History .................................................................................................................. 63 III. Jurisdictional Setting & Responsible Agencies ................................................................ 64 IV. Key Bolinas Lagoon Habitat Definitions.......................................................................... 72 V. Commonly Used Acronyms.............................................................................................. 73 VI. Glossary ............................................................................................................................ 74 A partnership with Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary, Marin County Open Space District & the United States Army Corps of Engineers VII. Figures............................................................................................................................... 82 Figure 1. Bolinas Lagoon and vicinity.............................................................................. 82 Figure 2. Flow chart of anthropogenic impacts to Bolinas Lagoon.................................. 83 Figure 3. Late 20th century progradation of Pine Gulch Creek and Kent Island marshes (excerpt of the PWA Report 2006).................................................................................... 84 Figure 4. Linear extension and fetch blocking effects of Kent Island (excerpt of the PWA Report 2006). .................................................................................................................... 85 Figure 5. Marsh expansion due to the progradation of Pine Gulch Creek Delta (excerpt of the PWA Report 2006). ..................................................................................................... 86 Figure 6. Distance from 1942 shoreline (excerpt of the Conceptual Littoral Sediment Budget Report 2006)......................................................................................................... 87 Figure 7. Shoreline analysis transect configuration (excerpt of the Conceptual Littoral Sediment Budget Report 2006). ........................................................................................ 88 Figure 8. Actions recommended in the Locally Preferred Plan........................................ 89 VIII. Tables................................................................................................................................ 90 Table 1. Restoration recommendations in the Locally Preferred Plan. ............................ 90 Table 2. Management recommendations for Bolinas Lagoon.......................................... 93 Table 3. Recommendations for adaptive management and monitoring. .......................... 95 Table 4. Species present in the Bolinas Lagoon watershed and on the Cal-IPC high priority list, 1-A. ............................................................................................................... 96 Table 5. Key habitats of Bolinas Lagoon.......................................................................... 97 Table 6. Key physical indicators of Bolinas Lagoon........................................................ 98 Table 7. Timeline: Steps to the final Locally Preferred Plan (LPP). .............................. 100 A partnership with Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary, Marin County Open Space District & the United States Army Corps of Engineers Executive Summary August 2008 Executive Summary This document provides a suite of recommendations that address human activities that result in outputs that directly and indirectly impact Bolinas Lagoon (lagoon). The ecological and physical functions of Bolinas Lagoon are influenced by ongoing interactions among sea level dynamics, earthquakes and sedimentation. Since the early 19th century, human land uses have altered the shoreline and watershed, changing the proportion of human-caused sediment reaching the lagoon, threatening