the chicken wire will just make it start eroding UNDER the pine chips, which is an even worse thing than the chips washing away.

groundcover plants and terracing are about the only things that will stop erosion.

and wow- that's a STEEP slope, allright.

fortunately, if you have shrubs in place already, you're well on your way to anchoring the bank, since the best way to hold it all together is to get plants with different root span/depths.

my favorite is a monster known either as false lamium or yellow archangel, depending on what database you're looking at. it takes all conditions in stride, sun, shade, clay soil- nothing stops it. it grows fast, has nice striped foliage, and doesn't 'vine' so you don't have to worry about coming home to your shrubs covered in the stuff.

Hi Chinacat,
Thank you for your advice. What I already have to protect from erosion are at the top of the bank 5 arborvitae, 2 established Rhodys, burning bush and pjm.
On the bank, are 4 year old 6 white-green & 2 yellow-green euyonmous, 3 gold tip junipers and 4 green junipers, 2 spireae, 6 Japanese Yew, 6 azalea, & 9 patches of day lilies. All have been planted at least 4 years ago. I wouldn't think erosion should be a problem, but I don't know. I know I am tired of picking the nugget off the sidewalk.
LAST YEAR MY MULCH PRODUCED ARTILLERY FUNGUS. Therefore I switched to Pine Nuggets large size.

I have a hill with the same sort of grade. I tried pine nuggets and found they washed away. The pine straw that I am using now stays more or less in place even when we have huge amounts of heavy rain, as we did with Dennis. you might try that

I agree with bmmalone. On mine, pine straw pretty much stays in place. Even in the hurricanes.

Hi Chinacat, bmmalone & Padinka,
Thank you all very much for your help. My question now is, what is pine straw? Is it the same as needles?

Yes, sort of -- pine needles can be any length from very short to long, whereas "pine straw" is usually from longleaf pines. Your local nursery may already have bales of it in their mulches section, otherwise, they are usually willing to order it for you. If they order, be sure to find out in advance how big the bale is, and it's approximate weight. The average bale is about 40 lbs, and covers about 60 sq ft to about 3".

On another forum a while ago, someone in CA referred to "gorilla hair" mulch, which was described as shredded so that it stood up to coastal CA winds and rain since it sort of tangled together.

Another alternative is to plant bands of a tough rooted, easy to grow plant like daylilies in between your shrubs or as a band a few inches from your sidewalk. They will slow down the flow and filter out the chips once established, which won't take long. [My daylilies all have much more mulch on the uphill side :>) ]