After 15 months in service, a 24-hour hotline for residents in the San Geronimo Valley to phone in anonymous complaints of riparian violations has proven costly without yielding results. Since the launch of the hotline in October 2022, a total of 13 phone complaints have been received, and none led to the discovery of a code violation. The county has spent about $21,000 on staff hours required by the service and $150 per month to pay the call center. Gil Sanchez, a code compliance specialist for Marin, said many of the calls had nothing to do with streamside development. “The complaints vary,” he said. “If somebody complains about their neighbor’s rooster, yes that’s in the San Geronimo Valley, but it’s not a stream issue.” The hotline is part of county development rules adopted in 2022, the outcome of a decade-long legal battle with the Salmon Protection and Watershed Network over protections for endangered coho salmon. Some valley residents, like Peggy Sheneman, a board member of the San Geronimo Valley Stewards, believe the service is a boondoggle. “That’s what we said when this whole kerfuffle happened—that you’re not going to find anything,” she said. But Todd Steiner, the executive director of SPAWN, said the hotline is neither publicized well enough nor accessible, and he said the anonymous nature of it needs to be stressed. The valley’s streamside development regulations, which impact roughly 1,400 households, are intended to balance protecting sensitive habitat areas and residents’ right to maintain properties through modest improvements. They prohibit construction within 100 feet of all streams and limit developments within the stream conservation area to 300 square feet and subject them to rules regarding runoff and permeability. In November, one site plan review application was approved for 247 square feet of development in Forest Knolls, next door to Pump Espresso; it was the only development approved for the stream area since the rules were passed. Owner Tim Ezekiel said the remodel has been extremely difficult. After more than two years and $45,000, he said the project is still stuck in limbo. “I’ve been a general contractor in Marin for 30 years and I’ve never encountered such stonewalling,” he said. “It’s a ridiculous thing to spend any more money at this point, but it’s like an old V.W. and you just keep putting money into it.” The Lagunitas watershed sustains one of the largest remaining runs of coho south of Fort Bragg. This year, coho are experiencing a banner year here. Across Montezuma, Woodacre and Arroyo Creeks—small streams that feed into San Geronimo Creek—42 coho nests have been counted, the most since SPAWN documented its first nest in 2002. In Arroyo Creek, 19 coho are actively spawning and 28 have been seen in Woodacre Creek. Most of these creeks run through residential backyards. Ayano Hayes, a watershed biologist with SPAWN, said coho are beginning to build their nests in areas they have previously not utilized. “They’re using riffle zones that I have always thought would be great spawning sites,” Ms. Hayes wrote in a statement. “It’s great to see the upper tributaries providing suitable habitat for optimal nest digging while decreasing the competition elsewhere in the system.” In Olema Creek, Michael Reichmuth, a fisheries biologist for the National Park Service, has counted over 200 adult coho and 50 nests since late November. While the numbers bring glimmers of hope, the true test will come this week as storms batter the area. While rain and fallen logs are beneficial for coho habitat, big storms can also destroy nests and muddy counts for biologists.