The State Hygienic Laboratory is one of 89 sponsors of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources’ annual river clean-up and stewardship event – Project AWARE. This year, AWARE brought a total of 433 volunteers and staff to the Wapsipinicon River for a 63-mile adventure.

The results were impressive. In five days, volunteers pulled more than 30 tons of tires, scrap metal, household hazardous materials and other trash from northeastern Iowa’s Wapsipinicon River, courtesy of Iowa DNR’s Project AWARE (A Watershed Awareness River Expedition).

Assorted trash from the Wapsipinicon River fills the canoe of a volunteer as he travels to the shore as part of Project AWARE. Photo courtesy of Iowa DNR.

From July 12 to 19, about 225 volunteers per day worked the Wapsi from Independence to Olin. They filled their canoes with mounds of rusty debris – sometimes pieces so large that they had to be balanced between two canoes – and hauled it downstream to the day’s collection point.

‘Eventually you’re bound to get dirty’

“Project AWARE isn’t for the person who’s afraid to get a little dirt under his or her fingernails,” Iowa DNR explains on its website. “While most of your time is spent in a canoe or kayak, you are still fully immersed in the wilderness and eventually you’re bound to get dirty.

“Prepare to find mud in awkward places and potentially stinky things in your canoe. Most people find this aspect appealing; remembering the days when they were just kids playing in the mud.”

What things come out of a river? If it could have been bought at an auto, farm or appliance store within the last 50 years, most likely it has been plucked from an Iowa river at least once in the history of AWARE. Commonly abandoned items that become trash in Iowa’s rivers are tires, auto parts (and sometimes shells of cars), wheels, motorcycles, refrigerators, dishwashers and heaps of scrap metal.

“Fourteen years ago, Project AWARE was inspired by Chad Pregracke with Living Lands and Waters, and [that group’s] river cleanup efforts on the Mississippi River,” said Lynette Seigley, Project AWARE coordinator for the Iowa DNR.

Seigley said that the event requires a year of planning and is made up of a family of individuals who gather each year to share a common goal of improving Iowa’s water resources.

“You would be hard pressed to find a more dedicated, passionate, fun-loving group of volunteers than those who participate in Project AWARE each year. Thanks to their efforts, more than one thousand river miles in Iowa have been cleaned during Project AWARE’s 13-year history.”

Sense of community

Part of the AWARE experience is a stewardship perspective that may be gained while on the river or during conversations and activities held nightly at AWARE campsites.

During overnight stops, groups of volunteers learned the art of making and walking a slackline (similar to making and walking a tightrope); handled snakes, turtles and fish; toured a home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright; and watched the play "Grant Wood: Prairie Rebel", which tells the life story of the artist.

When it’s time to launch again the next morning, backpacks and tents have to be packed along with any clothing left out to dry overnight; trash has to be collected; canoes readied; porta potties moved; and all the other logistics performed that allow volunteers to launch en masse for another day on the Wapsi.

Among the staff who help coordinate the project as well as carry the sometimes unwieldy trash are five Hygienic Laboratory staffers who have a cumulative 41 years of experience as event staff: Mike Birmingham, Mark Johnston, Travis Morarend, Kyle Skoff and Seth Zimmermann. Zimmermann works in Air Quality; the other four are limnologists.

“I am fortunate to have a staff who care deeply about Iowa’s natural resources, and do what it takes to make the Project AWARE experience rewarding, enjoyable, and memorable for all who participate,” said Seigley. “It takes a unique individual to be a staff member for Project AWARE.”

Many thanks

The work to clean up the Wapsi didn’t go unnoticed. Landowners and locals expressed their appreciation by handing out bottles of water, displaying thank-you signs, greeting volunteers with a mayoral welcome in Quasqueton and serenading the procession of canoes at two locations.

Artist David Williamson used scrap metal from several past AWARE events to create the gates on the Iowa DNR building at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines – a perennial tribute to all involved.

“This year, one of the local planning committee members mentioned that there were two dumpsters that had washed up downstream of Independence a few years back,” Seigley said. “He was uncertain as to whether the volunteers would be able to get them out of the river. By mid-morning on the first day, both dumpsters had been removed.

Part of the AWARE experience is a stewardship perspective that may be gained while on the river or during conversations and activities held nightly at AWARE campsites.

“Never underestimate a volunteer. You never know what the volunteers will find or how creative they will be in loading the trash into a single canoe or multiple canoes.”