The loss of historical and ecological connections and landscapes is particularly evident in the coastal zone, where an ever-increasing proportion of the world's population dwells. Remaining coastal wetlands are critical habitat for threatened species, serve as nursery areas and affect nearshore water quality. Restoration efforts focus on these vanishing habitats in many regions. As the goal of historic preservation has generally been to fix a historical moment rather than to acknowledge change, so ecological restoration has often sought to restore a landscape to a particular reference state. However, since coastal landscapes embody highly dynamic processes rather than a steady state, what are the goals of restoration? Our study considers landscape as a narrative that provides evidence of historical and ecological processes that can be used for restoration of the natural dynamics of coastal ecosystems. The integration of historical methods and values into restoration ecology, as well as the integration of ecological values into environmental history are a focus of our case study of a coastal wetland in southern California. Our comparisons utilize the rich fossil, archeological, historical and modern ecological information for this coastal site to evaluate landscape level changes occurring on the scale of tens of thousands to tens of years. Our objectives are to provide historical and ecological context for a dynamic coastal landscape that can be used to inform ecological restoration goals and to provide a model in which historical and ecological features and dynamics of the landscape are integral components of the process of ecological restoration.