Oregon has the most miles of impaired waterways of any state, suffering from sedimentation, high temperature, low dissolved oxygen, and many other factors. In the past, addressing these issues has relied on costly analysis and remediation and any progress in addressing Oregon’s impaired waterways has proven difficult if not impossible. Decades of scientific evidence has shown beaver dam complexes can help improve water quality by slowing down water flow, filtering and reducing nutrient pollution, recharging aquifers, and improving habitats for other aquatic species like salmon, birds and other wildlife that depend on them. And beavers do this for free, so long as they are alive and given the opportunity to establish their rightful place in these waters.
Three questions; how did so many of Oregon's waterways become "impaired", what exactly does that mean and where can the "decades of scientific evidence" be found?