Reece.

The 20th annual Project AWARE was held on the Iowa River July 9-14, 2023. AWARE is an acronym for A Watershed Awareness River Expedition. For each of the past 20 years a section of stream in this state has been cleaned through this project.

This year, 315 volunteers cleaned 58 miles of the Iowa River from near Albion in Marshall County to Koszta in Iowa County. The 58 miles encompassed Marshall, Tama, Benton and Iowa counties. Due to low water and a log jam the section of river in Tama County from McCoy’s Landing north of Montour to Manatt’s Landing in the city of Tama was not covered in this project.

An average of 197 participants, including myself, were on the river for each of the project’s 5 days. Garbage and other man-made debris were removed from the river as volunteers paddled their canoes and kayaks down the river.

Volunteers ranged in age from 4 to 80 years. 36 percent of the volunteers were rookies to the project this year. In addition to Iowa, volunteers came from Arizona, Colorado, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. The event was sponsored by 136 entities.

A good time was had by all who participated and a feeling of doing a good deed was felt by the group. Playful banter and a feeling of commemoratory was seen on the river daily as we drifted with the current.

Friends were made quickly as the armada of volunteers paddled down the river and walked the sandbars in search of trash. Friendships were made as volunteers conversed under shady sandbars to enjoy a well-earned shore lunch together. I for one thoroughly enjoyed meeting concerned citizens from different states who united in a common purpose. That purpose being leaving the river in a cleaner state than what we found it in.

All and all, the impression I got was that our Iowa River was relatively clean in comparison to other project AWAREs. An initial investigation appears to show that the trash removed from the Iowa this year was significantly lower than past projects.

Having said that…. this 20th Project AWARE removed a total of 21,360 pounds (10.7 tons) of trash and recyclables from our river. Recyclables removed from the river constituted 20,520 pounds or 10.3 tons. 96 percent of these were recycled. 161 tires (5,180 pounds, 2.6 tons) were removed from the river. 8,780 (4.4 tons) of scrap metal were removed from the river. Miscellaneous recyclables such as appliances, plastics, cardboard, pop cans, glass, etc. amounted to 6,560 pounds or 3.3 tons. 840 pounds (.4 tons) of general trash were removed and landfilled.

In my opinion, the most interesting item removed from the Iowa River this year was a large inboard/outboard fiberglass boat located about one mile downstream from the city of Tama. This boat was upside down and half buried in a sandbar. Dozens of volunteers dug this boat free and dozens of volunteers pulled this boat out of the river with ropes.

Other oddities were also found and removed from the river. I lost count of the number of shopping carts that were removed from the river. Evidently, it must give some odd-balls a feeling of satisfaction to steal a shopping cart and to throw it off a river bridge. I guess some people just need a life. I observed that the tenacity of the volunteers to remove the smallest to the largest piece of garbage from the river was on full display daily.

The goal for everyone going forward is to keep the river clean for this and future generations. A clean river improves everyone’s quality of life. The choice is ours.

Brett Reece is a conservation officer for Tama and Benton counties with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.