Clean out the silt areas? Lol clean out the silt more settles. The river bank stabilization and reforestation to stop erosion is the answer to silt issues. Also planting trees helps lower river temps and hold more ground water. Spring high melts blow out built up silt but this takes us actually getting accumulated snow and bank protection to not allow the blow out high water to rip apart banks.
In addition farm land needs buffers between the rivers and the crops. Storm water needs to be managed by bigger and better storm water ponds.
The problem is huge and the answers are complicated but we have made gains in many areas.
Housing now requires storm water ponds where they did not used to. Trees are planted and some buffer zones have been created. Dams have been dismantled in some head waters. Some ponds have been taken off line of head water areas.
We just need to keep going and protect the entire river and lake environments and make restitution for our forefathers mistakes.
pretty well everyone will agree that the years following the floods on the Ganny in 1980, which also cleared out all the silt exposing prime spawning gravel, were the best steelhead fishing they ever saw
shoreline erosion, lets explore that moment, rivers do not have a predetermined path, they cut there way through the land scape eroding soil and banks that are in the way. its how you get horseshoe lakes. have you not noticed trees that have fallen into rivers in heavily wooded areas?
but the mindset of people isn't about whats going around them, its about what they are doing at that moment to look good on social media for however long that fad is going on. until people see high waters and flooding as a good thing for the environment, and not as a disruption to their routines, there will be problems
the main river that i fish hasn't had this urban sprawl happen on it as of yet, is vastly farmland and conservation areas right up through the head waters, and yet, there is still a ton of silt in it
