March 13, 2025 — Last winter, endangered Central California Coast coho salmon returned to Mendocino Coast rivers and streams in the highest numbers since monitoring began 16 years ago. The numbers suggest NOAA’s long-term investment to recover the species is paying off.
Local businesses are also reaping the rewards. Government funding for salmon habitat restoration employs foresters, construction workers, and other professionals to rehabilitate rivers and streams damaged by historic logging.
Recovering species to the point where they can be removed from the endangered species list takes a long time. NOAA has funded dozens of restoration projects benefiting Central California Coast coho salmon in Mendocino watersheds over the last 20 years. In an area decimated by a century’s worth of clearcutting and other harmful practices, there’s no shortage of restoration work to do.
“This funding is a big deal,” says Registered Professional Forester Chris Blencowe, who has consulted on restoration projects with NOAA partners The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and Trout Unlimited (TU). “It’s diversifying the economy and directly supports good-paying local jobs with which you can support a family. I’m from this area, and without this work, I honestly don’t know what I’d be doing.”
The Office of Habitat Conservation’s most recent injection of $14.5 million from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act in new river restoration projects has taken Mendocino’s restoration economy to new levels.
“We got a big boost here the last couple of years with the infrastructure funding,” says Brian Hurt, President of Wylatti Resource Management Inc. Wylatti is building projects on the Ten Mile River for TNC and at Dry Dock Gulch for TU with NOAA funding. “We used to have just one crew doing restoration work. This past year, at least three crews worked full time through the season.”
The success of the restoration work—and the restoration economy—owes a lot to better relationships between timber companies, landowners, restoration practitioners, and government agencies. Working together has improved the sustainability of working lands and the impact of restoration projects.