San Dieguito Lagoon Marsh Restoration Project

orchid
Although not your typical Landscape Architecture project, the San Dieguito Lagoon Restoration Project is a worthy Orchid. This project has undergone over 15 years of planning, design, and permitting and then two years of construction. Today, the San Dieguito Lagoon is emerging as one of the largest and highest profile habitat restoration projects in southern california. The San Dieguito Lagoon Restoration project is restoring 150 acres of coastal wetland habitat. The San Dieguito Lagoon is located at Del Mar, just north of San Diego, California. Southern California Edison (SCE) is working in partnership with the San Dieguito River Park Authority (JPA) to carry out the restoration project. The San Dieguito Wetland Restoration Project has been very carefully designed so that the rejuvenated lagoon will serve as a thriving fish hatchery, a refuge for migratory waterfowl and as an open space for recreational opportunities for local and regional communities alike. A public working group consisting of agency representatives, non-governmental organizations, and interested members of the public, worked towards developing a range of practical means of restoring the San Dieguito Lagoon. Construction is nearly completed. In total, approximately 2 million cubic yards of earth will have been excavated, creating a net of 150 acres of tidal wetlands, on both sides of Interstate 5. A cornerstone of the project is to remove the sand that has plugged the river channel for many years and keep the tidal inlet open in perpetuity. At high-tide, the created wetlands already support a population of snails, crabs, amphibians, small mammals, birds and provide fish a place to spawn and grow. Approximately 400,000 wetland plants were planted throughout the marsh habitats in early 2009. This planted vegetation is already thriving and serves as forraging and nesting habitat for dozens of bird species. The river park’s multi-purpose network of public trails are under construction and will follow the marsh shoreline, punctuated by interpretive wildlife viewing platforms.
Project Information
Project Address: 
Interstate 5 at Villa De La Valle
Project Owner/ Developer: 
Southern California Edison
Owner Contact Name/ Email: 
Patrick Tennant, Manager, Power Generation and Environmental Projects, Patrick.Tennant@sce.com
Project Architect/ Designer: 
WRA, Project Design Consultants, RECON Environmental, Inc.
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Comments:

Army Corp of Engineers? Orchid in vision, but Onion in execution

Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 09/27/2010 - 18:17.
I couldn't agree more with the previous comments, this is a fantastic highly visable site, but the very words used in the project's title "marsh restoration" implies a returning this area to a natural/wild state, however the completely manicured grading looks more like a golf course green space. This is project is certainly an Orchid in vision, but an Onion in execution

It's such a good project to

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 08/31/2010 - 18:10.
It's such a good project to restore a wetland, and this one adjacent to so many public uses is a great location for education and raising public awareness. That being said, I have to agree with the first comment that the manufactured edges aren't conducive to the kind of habitat creation that should be happening. One of the basic tenets of healthy habitat restoration is to maximize edge conditions, because it is the edges - the ecotones - that are the richest in diversity and habitat value. This project could be so much more....

Engineered slopes

Submitted by SDLA on Mon, 08/23/2010 - 19:44.
I Love the concepts and environmental success of this project. My only concern is that every slope they created was done without any consideration to contour grading to make it look like a natural edge to the lagoon. It looks very "engineered"; hopefully the plant material will eventually cover that blaring flaw in this very worthy project.