Analysis of 20 years of monitoring data and hydraulic modeling revealed that each design responded differently to the imposed initial channel conditions and evolved at substantially different rates. The design with bankfull dimensions most closely approximating Q(e) reached dynamic equilibrium within four years of restoration, whereas the moderately over-widened channel (57% larger) exhibited slower responses toward dynamic equilibrium for some metrics and did not fully attain the Q(e) design dimensions within the monitoring period. The extremely-over-widened channel (91% larger) mainly induced slow rates of bed deposition that are projected to take nearly 300 years for the bankfull dimensions to narrow to the Q(e) width. All reaches had low bed mobility (bankfull Shields stress < 0.03) 14 years after restoration, demonstrating the challenge of reducing the drivers of channel widening, while maintaining sufficient competence for bedload transport and a sustained supply of coarse bed material for salmonid habitat. Restoration that sizes the channel to Q(e) can provide rapid dynamic equilibrium, but is a first-order simplification of 1) channel dynamics and 2) the range of flows needed for restoring physical and biological processes in wet-meadow systems.