Judge orders changes to Columbia and Snake river dam operations to help ‘disappearing’ salmon

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A federal judge in Oregon late Wednesday ordered narrow changes to hydropower dam operations on the Columbia and Snake rivers in the Pacific Northwest in order to help salmon, saying that the Trump administration’s plans for the massive structures would harm salmon runs that are “disappearing from the landscape.”

The ruling came in a decades-long legal effort by the states of Oregon and Washington, Native American tribes and conservation and fishing groups to ensure better protections for migrating salmon...