There was some indication that time was of the essence. Deforestation and the resulting erosion flooded the South's rivers with sediment that buried the mussels that are the adults' only food and the shallow gravel beds that the fish needs to lay its eggs. Dams blocked their migration to spawning areas and changed the ecology of their rivers. The fish that managed to survive all that then had to contend with exotic threats such as the flathead catfish, a voracious predator that's native to the Mississippi basin. Absent that you can recruit more partners and find more funding.
Cooperation works better than confrontation.
It really has worked remarkably well. Since its inception in 1995, the Robust Redhorse Conservation Committee has paid for sampling and research. It has raised fish in hatcheries and stocked thousands of them in Georgia rivers. Stocking will also be required to restore the robust redhorse in North Carolina, but biologists hesitate using fry from Georgia fish for fear of mixing genetic strains. Before stocking is considered, a population of at least 1,000 redhorses, from which breeding fish can be drawn, will have to be found in the Yadkin-Pee Dee.