Coastal Mitigation in Southern California: The Need for a Regional Restoration Strategy

Along the southern California coast there are few opportunities to create new wetlands; hence, mitigators often propose to remodel existing wetlands to achieve greater "value" rather than offering to create new habitat. Restoration and/or mitigation plans have been proposed for about half the region's 29 coastal wetland systems, with debate over which objectives can be met and little ability to predict the cumulative result. I briefly summarize what is known of the historic functioning of southern California wet- lands, and describe four specific mitigation case studies to document problems and concerns. There is an urgent need for wetland modifications to be guided by a regional wetland restoration plan, and I therefore propose a stategy to this end. Knowledge of the dilemma in southern California may help other regions avoid similar problems by developing land- scape-level approaches to habitat protection and restructuring before too much of the re- source is lost.