In 1881, Yontocket Slough was described as "literally alive with salmon" even after years of commercial harvest. In December 1861, an early fishery, Woodbury's cannery and 400 barrels of salmon were washed out by the Noachian Deluge. Continual harvesting in excess of 50 tons per year however, led to the decline of the fishery which was closed to commercial take during the 1930s. The Christmas flood of 1964 added large quantities of grey silt on top of the channel sediments, reducing the depth, changing the flora and further reducing fish habitat. The silt was drag line dredged in 1985 and cattle were excluded from the stream bed and fringing verge by 2002 after which adult coastal cutthroat trout were found in the slough. By 2007 crews from the California Conservation Corps had planted more than 1,000 Sitka spruce and red alders as well as 500 willow sprigs and of exclusion fencing.