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.