What a great question.
What is best for the river?
Seems to me that the small fry I see in the shallow water have to be something other than suckers. If those are in fact salmon, steelhead or trout, when they get washed up on the rocks, well, that aint good.
The constant pounding the banks take can only make it easier for the high water to wash more of it away.
Yes there used to be a bunch more woods along the river. I believe the clear-cutting in the watershed has lead to the "100 year floods" we have every 2 years lately. So what the river was capable of withstanding 10 years ago is now being eroded away. Alot of those farms are closer because the river moves so much these days. Stormy had a 300' setback of trees all the way down. Now only a small section remain. And he didnt cut em down either.
I could at least go with the smaller sleds (40hp) but make them take a courtesy course on river etiquette.

By the way is the reason there are no sleds on the OP because of restrictions or because they cut up your trailer at the launch with a cutting torch?