Behind the "Welcome to Sebastopol" sign at the eastern Highway 12 entrance, Ned Kahn's Sebastopol Spire stands 28 feet tall in a small meadow. It's covered in 11,760 reflective tabs made from plant-based polycarbonate, mounted on a stainless-steel frame, and the tabs move with the wind. Crews installed it on September 19, 2024. Just north of it, a 48-foot pedestrian bridge crosses Zimpher Creek. The Sebastopol Times called that bridge "a bridge to nowhere" until this summer, because it ended in a patch of overgrown blackberry.
On Monday, September 28, at 4 p.m., the City held a short ceremony between the Spire and that bridge to officially open the AmeriCorps Trail Extension. The City's announcement called it "recently completed (after 30 years!)." The ribbon is cut. The trail is still a seasonal one, though, and its first official season runs about eight more days.
Eight days between the ribbon and the bridge
The City posted that its Public Works crew will remove the Laguna seasonal floating bridge on Tuesday, October 6, for what it called the bridge's "annual hibernation." That floating bridge is the piece that ties the new trail into everything else. The Sebastopol Times put it plainly in August: every year the City sets up a seasonal footbridge to the east side of the Laguna Trail system, "now that bridge is finally connected to the newly opened AmeriCorps Trail."
Until October 6, the full walk on the City's side of the Laguna channel runs like this:
- Start at the meadow behind the Welcome sign on Sebastopol Avenue, where the Spire stands.
- Head north across the new Zimpher Creek bridge. Before it was built, crossing meant climbing down a steep bank on each side, and only when the creek was running low.
- Follow the trail along Morris Street on the west side of the Laguna channel. Several access points along Morris let you shorten the walk.
- Reach the formal entrance at the south end of the Community Center parking lot at 390 Morris Street. A short trail there loops around the City's former wastewater ponds.
- Cross the floating bridge to the east-bank trail, which leads to Meadowlark Field and more regional trails.
Step five goes away on October 6. Steps one through four stay, but the ground under them is about to change too.
Why the trail stops at the waterline
The trail has been a seasonal path since it first appeared in a plan. In 2015, the Laguna Wetlands Preserve Restoration and Management Plan said the AmeriCorps Trail "is frequently flooded in winter," and that south of the lift station it wasn't maintained and dead-ended at Zimpher Creek. The engineering fix for that existed. The agencies didn't approve it.
City consultants designed a permanent trail with sections of fill, sections of boardwalk, and a pedestrian bridge over the mouth of Zimpher Creek. The county Open Space District then required an environmental impact study and ruled out the fill and the boardwalk. The California Department of Fish and Game raised concerns that held up the work for several more years. The bridge survived the redesign. The raised walkway that would have kept people above winter water did not.
Here's the timeline the Sebastopol Times pieced together:
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1992 | The trail first appears in the City's Laguna Master Plan |
| 2003 | More than 100 AmeriCorps members and volunteers clear brambles and blaze a rough route in one day |
| 2007 | AmeriCorps members return for modest improvements |
| 2011 | A Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation restoration grant pays for more clearing workdays |
| 2018 | The City applies for a $126,943 county Ag + Open Space matching grant, with a total project budget of $253,887 |
| June 2023 | Council awards the Zimpher Creek bridge contract to Pat Nelson Construction |
| 2025 | The bridge is finished at a cost of $214,877, after delays from added state and federal environmental requirements |
| Late July 2026 | Public Works crews clear the full route |
The paperwork took longer than the building did. Getting all the easements and covenants, plus their amendments, properly filed with the county took six years. The cost grew along the way. The 2018 budget was $253,887. A City budget amendment in February 2024 raised it to $467,367. By August 2026, the Sebastopol Times put the total at about $800,000 and described the project as still a "work in progress." The City and the Times figures don't fully match. Either way, the trail cost roughly double to triple its first budget and still came out as a dry-season path.
Even this year's opening ran on the Laguna's schedule. The City had hoped to open the trail in the spring with the Climate Action Committee, and several volunteer workdays were set and then canceled because the ground was too wet. Public Works Director Oriana Hart explained the delay:
"We had late rains and an early cool summer that has kept the area too wet for our equipment."
Councilmember Neysa Hinton has pushed on this project since she was first elected in 2016. She told the Times, "It's hard to believe how long this has taken. But I'm glad the AmeriCorps Trail is open, and I can't wait to walk it."
What the walk looks like after October 6
When the floating bridge comes out, the trail stays open, but it becomes a dead end on the west bank. Without the bridge there's no foot crossing from the preserve to the east-bank trail and Meadowlark Field. The City lists the bridge's season as "late Spring to early Fall." A 2016 Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation FAQ gives a tighter typical window of mid-May through mid-October, but that's a past pattern, not a date set for 2027.
The trail itself is rough even in a dry month. The Times called it "a rough and difficult walk with very muddy spots and uneven terrain," and said only many more footsteps will improve it. That describes conditions in August. In winter, the Laguna takes on water from the Russian River whenever the river runs higher, and it can form a temporary lake. The City notes that the land along the Laguna can flood several times in a wet year. A path the agencies wouldn't let the City raise or fill sits in exactly that zone.
Hart has already described what a year-round trail would need:
"Longer term, I would love to continue the discussion about installing a raised boardwalk. That would allow year-round access while protecting the wetlands, but it will require additional funding."
That's the same boardwalk the agencies cut from the original design, now presented as a way to protect the wetlands. Keeping the current trail clear is its own open question. The Laguna Foundation's invasive-plant crews were paid for with Sonoma Water and Watershed Partners Program money that expired this year. Brent Reed, the Foundation's Stewardship Director, said the group has no active role with the AmeriCorps Trail but keeps asking the City how it can help: "We'd like to see the ongoing maintenance needs minimized, and we're good at organizing volunteers. But you always need more money for these kinds of efforts."
Two October dates across the Laguna
Once the floating bridge is out, the Laguna's October programming moves to the Laguna Environmental Center on Sanford Road, on the Santa Rosa side.
On Saturday, October 10, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., the Foundation holds its free fall open house. There are guided walks through the native plant demonstration garden at 11 a.m. and noon, and "Spirit of My Homeland," a new exhibit of work by artist Gloria Armstrong, is on view in Heron Hall. The Milo Baker Chapter of the California Native Plant Society holds its annual native plant sale the same day, with manzanita, ceanothus, coffeeberry, and monkeyflower on its list. No RSVP is needed.
On Wednesday, October 21, the Foundation runs a free accessible fall birding outing at 900 Sanford Road. It moves slowly, stops often, and keeps to short walks on flat, unpaved paths. When last checked, it was sold out with a waitlist.
On the Sebastopol side, the full loop from the Spire meadow across Zimpher Creek, up Morris Street, and over the floating bridge to Meadowlark Field is open through Monday, October 5. More on the town's seasonal calendar is on our Sebastopol neighborhood page and in our look at how the Gravenstein sets Sebastopol's August.
A trail that takes a season to dry out, a bridge that goes in and comes out on the Laguna's schedule, land you can only reach part of the year: these are everyday facts of life near the Laguna, and they come up when a property sits close to water. If you'd like to talk through how a piece of land changes from summer to winter, Theresa Disbro is glad to walk it with you. Schedule a personalized consultation.
