Chasin' Baitman posted: " I had heard that the problem on the Stilly *IS* lack of habitat (perhaps due to rapid development and also the landslide?). Does anyone know any details on the habitat situation on the Stilly?"

All of the north PS watersheds suffer from the geomorphic condition called unstable steep slopes. Since all of the forestlands outside of national parks and designated wilderness areas have been logged, these unstable slopes have been and continue to dump huge quantities of eroded soil, and especially high concentrations of fines that smother incubating eggs and alevins that are incubating in the gravel of tributary streams and mainstem rivers. Both forks of the Stilly and the SF Nooksack have that in spades. As spawning habitat is degraded a higher % of a salmon population is necessary for escapement and reproduction. With Canadian interceptions and a few WA state harvests, the Stilly doesn't get enough spawners to maintain a population. The recruit per spawner output is consistently lower than 1.0. This means that without the supplementation from the Stilly Tribal hatchery, Stilly Chinook would go extinct, and likely already be extinct.

Given the slow rate of habitat recovery in the Stilly basin, I don't think there is any way a wild Chinook population can maintain itself going forward, let alone recover to a self sustaining level with a harvestable surplus.