eyeFISH,

The Stilly plan, like all salmon restoration plans, has not been fully funded. Like the public, the Legislature has a short attention span. Both have grown salmon funding weary, and the money spigot has had its flow cut back. I don't think the body politic gets it, that you can't just pour money on habitat and get the desired results - more salmon - in 5 years. I doubt society has the fortitude for a 50 -100 year plan to recover salmon habitat. I don't think people get how expensive recovery is. IMO, a $200,000 habitat improvement project is lucky if it results in $10 worth of new salmon per year in the near term, i.e., say 20 years.

I think the most effective, and least popular based on what I see happening, is riparian land acquisition, removal of rip rap dikes and levees, and revegetation, as part of longer term restoration actions.

Hill slopes in the Stilly basin are inherently unstable. Restoring to relative stability probably requires letting all timber on steep slopes grow unmolested for decades. And that won't stop land slides. It would just reduce the frequency of major landslides to something that allows natural Chinook production to become sustainable.