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Debate and conjecture over Malibu Lagoon

An overhang depicting a kelp bed rests over the heads of California State Parks Ranger Craig Sap, in uniform, and Mark Abramson, senior watershed advisor for the Santa Monica Bay Restoration Foundation, at the newly restored Malibu Lagoon.

An overhang depicting a kelp bed rests over the heads of California State Parks Ranger Craig Sap, in uniform, and Mark Abramson, senior watershed advisor for the Santa Monica Bay Restoration Foundation, at the newly restored Malibu Lagoon.  (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Before the bulldozers arrived last June, Malibu Lagoon was a fully grown habitat for egrets, voles and tidewater gobies, studded with sycamore trees and clusters of tule reeds. Today, the lagoon’s islands appear almost barren, covered by a sea of tiny red and blue plastic flags marking young plants just taking root. Depending on whom you talk to, the lagoon has been restored or ruined. READ STORY

Photos of how it was

Marcia Hanscom, executive director of the Wetlands Defense Fund, holds a pair of photographs showing what Malibu Lagoon looked like before its recent restoration. Hanscom was opposed to the $7-million project.  (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

A surfer's path

A surfer makes his way down a groomed path around the newly restored Malibu Lagoon. The body of water has been through many incarnations, some created by floods and tides and others by human beings.   (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Marking new growth

One of the lagoon’s islands is covered in red and blue flags marking the areas where young plants are taking root in the newly restored body of water.  (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

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Friendly to fowl

A mallard duck steps over an irrigation line. The restoration project has certainly been long in the making -- two decades and counting. Whether it is or will be successful remains to be seen.  (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

For the birds

Mark Abramson, senior watershed advisor for the Santa Monica Bay Restoration Foundation, and Suzanne Goode, senior environmental scientist with California State Parks, stand next to “The Bird Blind” at the newly restored lagoon. Goode said the new plantings would take about two years to fill in.  (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

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