FNP-
You asked - "You think anybody's paying attention?"

The answer of course is yes. However it is equally true that the priority of most decision makers has been surviving ESA listings rather than recovering the fish. Or if you will political science has been trumping biological science.

Progams such as these brood stocks are often little more than the easy way to give the appearance of "doing something". Yes there are cases where "rescue " programs are needed but there are more common cases where the current approach needs to be re-thought.

I would suggest that a more effective way to aid the fish would be some sort of "pulsed" enhancement effort. Using the NF Stillaguamish as an example what I would envision would be that the enhancement level would step in to aid the population when natural escapements fell to a certain level - let's say a 1,000 fish. At that point wild brood fish would be take, smolt raised and released for one generation (4 or 5 years). At which point the program would be suspended for a generation or long to see how the population responds and to allow natural selection processes to work against the mal-adapted hatchery fish. of course the risk of such an approach is that in many cases that limit factors are habitat based on not fisheries driven and the ultimate fix has to be in the habitat arena.

Tight lines
Curt