CM/Rivrguy-

Whether the escapement goal is increased or not there are some very real benefits from habitat restoration/improvements that benefit both the fish and society. Significant habitat improvement by its very definition results in improvement in both the productivity and capacity of the stream to produce salmonids.

In the short term that means that at any escapement point (current escapement goals??) larger run sizes will be produced at given survival conditions. Those larger runs means that catches/value of the population increases. However that is secondary to what may be the most significant populations/society benefit of habitat improvements. Currently for many of the regions salmonid populations the productivity of the populations have been so compromised that there is little resiliency left in the population to recovery from any of many potential population disasters. Historically when populations where reduced to low levels (say by a major flood) population productivity was high enough that the population bounced back quickly; often in as little as a single generation. At day's productivity that bounce back may stretch over decades (multiple fish generations). This has the dual effect of greatly increasing the likelihood of extinction and increase the time interval until there would once again be fishable numbers for the fishers.

One can not over look the fact that many of the region's salmonid fisheries are based on individual populations exploitation rates. Within the constrains of management break points those exploitation rates increasing the productivity of the base habitat (habitat restoration/improvement) will result in increased runs which in turn will provide both larger escapements and larger escapements.

So yes there are real benefits from habitat improvements!

Curt