The Restoration Committee
Project for Biome re-Juvenation
For over a century, Lake Lag was the heart of Stanford's campus. Today, it sits empty. We have the science to amend the obsolete regulations—and the plan to refill it.
Constructed in 1876 by Leland Stanford, Lake Lagunita hosted the Big Game Bonfire, water carnivals, and generations of student memories. In 2013, Stanford signed a Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) with the federal government that legally restricted the lake to 3-5 feet of water.
The HCP's original intent was to protect the California tiger salamander and the steelhead trout. But the ecological facts on the ground have drastically changed. We can refill the lake without harming protected species. All that stands in our way is updating the paperwork.
The 2013 HCP restricted lake levels to protect steelhead trout from water diversions at San Francisquito Creek. However, following litigation, Stanford dismantled the Lagunita Diversion Dam in 2019. The creek diversion no longer exists, making this justification entirely obsolete.
The very regulations keeping the lake empty admit that historical recreational water levels actually facilitated the persistence of the California tiger salamander on campus. Refilling the lake does not threaten their breeding grounds; it historically supported them.
Stanford currently manages the lake using runoff and reservoirs entirely disconnected from sensitive habitats. By pushing for a science-backed, deregulatory amendment to the 2013 HCP, we can restore Lake Lagunita legally, ecologically, and safely.
Project for Biome re-Juvenation
We have the connections and the facts. Now we need the numbers. Add your name to the official petition calling on Stanford University to amend the 2013 Habitat Conservation Plan.
Join the growing list of alumni, students, and faculty demanding a science-backed restoration of Lake Lagunita.
Sign the Petition Now
