Don Brunell - The legacy of Lonesome Larry

In 1992, a single male sockeye salmon managed to swim 900 miles from the mouth of the Columbia River to Redfish Lake in Idaho’s Sawtooth Mountains, the end of his migratory journey. Biologists dubbed him “Lonesome Larry.”

This year, the Northwest Power and Conservation Council happily reported record-setting runs for sockeye in the Columbia and Snake rivers and their tributaries. Nearly 387,000 had climbed the fish ladders at Bonneville Dam, and by mid-August 2,100 passed through the fish counters at Lower Granite Dam, the last counting station on the Snake just west of Lewiston, Idaho.

The re...