News: River cleanup

Looking for a way to increase your junk tire collection while helping the environment?

Project AWARE (A Watershed Awareness River Expedition) is seeking volunteers to clean of some 90 miles of Little Turkey, Turkey and Volga rivers in July.

An Iowa Department of Natural Resources press release quotes a county conservation board director talking about the importance of the project and the possible treasures participants may find --- "Floods have both exposed and deposited tires, barrels and other trash and the river needs a cleanup project such as project AWARE."

Volunteers in kayaks and canoes paddle down the river in cleaning up river trash along the way. They can also help from land.

An equipment checklist includes water bottles, bandages, work gloves and so on. Tetanus shots aren't mentioned.

In recent year, AWARE volunteers have cleaned up more than 613 river miles, removing more than 150 tons of trash, 59 percent of which has been recycled, according to the DNR press release.

For more information on this event and to download the registration materials --- and a copy of the equipment checklist --- please visit www.iowaprojectaware.com.

Photo: Circle of life

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So there I was, standing on the roof of a dilapidated house watching firefighters use high-powered saws to chop up, well, the roof (that doesn't sound so smart at the moment), when the fire captain pointed out the hawk and the pigeon.

The hawk (maybe it's a falcon, I don't know my birds) was perched on a tree in the home's front yard just about at eye-level. He was chomping on what was left of the pigeon. The buzz of the demolition saws didn't bother him. He just sat there, eating his pigeon and watching us on the roof --- dinner and a show downtown

From Iowa DNR: Keep off the ice

"Ice conditions are deteriorating over much of Iowa, leaving only the far north counties where ice fishing is still happening. Even in these northern counties where the ice thickness had been over two feet a few weeks ago, the access to lakes is becoming more difficult as snow melt and runoff is beginning to open some of the edges, and anglers who were once driving on the lake are now walking out," reads a DNR release.

It continues ...

"Anglers still going out on the northern lakes should look out for weak spots, black ice and avoid areas with slush or water on top of the ice that could create an unsafe situation."

It might have something to do with this (from an earlier DNR release) ...

"The incident Saturday occurred at about 8 a.m. on Fish Lake, a backwater of the Mississippi River near New Albin. An ATV pulling a trailer ... went through the ice along with two other adults and a juvenile. All four were able to escape the water and get to a nearby island where they started a fire to keep warm."

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Eagles

In January, I wrote about the live eagle cam in Decorah and the watched over the following week as nothing happened.

I just checked back, and there is an actual bald eagle tonight. It's in the nest, occasionally picking at its wings as its feathers flutter in the wind. There are about 2,000 others watching the feed at this moment.

Grand opening

Just trying out the new blog format. I tried to use this in 2002, and it didn't work out. I was surprised to see my account was still open in 2011.