• Discourage unnecessary and wasteful use of water during summer low flow periods to improve stream surface flows and fish habitat, especially in the Southern Subbasin;
• Increase the use of water storage and catchments systems that collect rainwater in the winter for use in the drier summer season;
• Support local efforts to educate landowners about water storage and catchments systems, and find ways to support and subsidize development of these systems;
• Support and expand ongoing local efforts that monitor summer water and air temperatures on a continuous 24-hour basis to detect long-range trends and short-term effects on the aquatic/riparian community;
• Support efforts to determine the role of sediment in the mainstem Mattole River in elevated estuarine water temperatures.

Erosion and Sediment Delivery Reduction Activities:

• Reduce sediment deposition to the estuary by supporting a basin-wide road and erosion assessment/control program such as the Mattole Restoration Council’s Good Roads, Clear Creeks effort. Continue to conduct and implement road and erosion assessments such as the ongoing efforts in the Dry and Westlund planning watersheds in the Eastern Subbasin. Expand road assessment efforts because of the potential for further sediment delivery from active and abandoned roads, many of which are in close proximity to stream channels, especially in the Bridge and Thompson planning watersheds in the Southern Subbasin;
• Establish monitoring stations and train local personnel to track in-channel sediment and aggraded reaches throughout the basin and especially in the North Fork Mattole and the Upper North Fork Mattole rivers, Mattole Canyon, Blue Slide, Squaw, Honeydew, and Bear creeks;
• Consider the nature and extent of naturally occurring unstable geologic terrain, landslides and landslide potential (especially Categories 4 and 5, page 89) when planning potential projects in the subbasin;
• At stream bank erosion sites, encourage cooperative efforts to reduce sediment yield to streams. CGS mapping indicates eroding banks are not a significant basin wide issue, but may be of localized importance. They occur in isolated, relatively short reaches distributed throughout the Mattole Basin;
• Based on the high incidence of unstable slopes in the Northern Subbasin, any future sub-division development proposals should be based on an existing county-imposed forty acre minimum parcel sub-division ordinances;
• Encourage the use of appropriate Best Management Practices for all land use and development activities to minimize erosion and sediment delivery to streams. For example, low impact yarding systems should be used in timber harvest operations on steep and unstable slopes to reduce soil compaction, surface disturbance, and resultant sediment yield.

Riparian and Habitat Improvement Activities:

• Where current canopy is inadequate and site conditions, including geology, are appropriate, initiate tree planting and other vegetation management to hasten the development of denser and more extensive riparian canopy, especially in the Northern Subbasin;
• Landowners and managers in the Northern and Western subbasins should work to add more large organic debris and shelter structures to streams in order to improve channel structure, channel function, habitat complexity, and habitat diversity for salmonids;
• Ensure that stream reaches with high quality habitat in the Mattole Basin are protected from degradation. This is especially important in the Southern Subbasin. The best stream conditions as evaluated by the stream reach EMDS were found in the South Fork of Vanauken Creek, Mill Creek - at Mattole river-mile 56.2 (RM 56.2), Stanley Creek, Thompson Creek, Yew Creek, and Lost Man Creek Tributary in the Southern Subbasin, and in Harrow Creek in the Eastern Subbasin. Refugia investigation criteria, which include biological parameters, indicated Bear Creek was the best stream evaluated in the Mattole Basin.

Supplemental Fish Rescue and Rearing Activities:

• Since 1982 a successful cooperative salmonid rearing facility in the Mattole Basin headwaters has been operated by the Mattole Salmon Group (MSG) and CDFG. They also operate a Chinook juvenile out-migrant rescue rearing program near the estuary, which released 2,400 coded-wire-tagged Chinook sub-yearlings in October 2002. These programs should be continued as needed to supplement wild populations while the improvements from long-term watershed and stream restoration efforts develop;
• Initiate a systematic program to monitor the effectiveness of fish rescue and rearing activities, and determine the need for the continuance of cooperative, supplemental fish rearing efforts;
• Update as scheduled the MSG/CDFG five-year plan that provides guidance to the cooperative rearing and rescue projects. Base the periodic plan updates on the findings of the effectiveness monitoring program and best available science.

Education, Research, and Monitoring Activities:

• Utilize Humboldt State University studies conducted in the early 1990s as baseline information to periodically monitor trends in estuarine conditions and fish production;
• Encourage ongoing stream inventories and fishery surveys of tributaries throughout the Mattole Basin, especially in the Northern Subbasin;
• In order to protect privacy while developing data, the possibility of training local landowners to survey their own streams and to conduct salmonid population status surveys throughout the basin would be advisable;
• Further study to investigate the affects to water quality from timberland herbicide use is recommended;
• Follow the procedures and guidelines outlined by NCRWQCB to protect water quality from ground applications of pesticides;
• Encourage appropriate chemical transportation and storage practices as well as early spill reporting and clean-up procedures;
• Conduct training as needed and desired to assist landowners, managers, consultants, and other interested parties in the construction and appropriate application of landslide occurrence and potential maps from GIS analysis.