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Project AWARE moves tons of garbage

A pair of Project AWARE volunteers haul their daily collection of trash from the Cedar River downstream to a collection point.  Press photo by Kate Hayden
A pair of Project AWARE volunteers haul their daily collection of trash from the Cedar River downstream to a collection point. Press photo by Kate Hayden
By Thomas Nelson, tnelson@charlescitypress.com

Project AWARE worked to help clean the Cedar River, removing 28 tons of trash over the course of a week.

And a full 88 percent — 24.7 tons — of what was pulled out of the river, the shore and sandbars was recycled.

The 469 volunteers who helped during all or part of the week to remove that garbage from the Cedar River using canoes and kayaks set a new participation record for Project AWARE.

An average of 250 volunteers a day — another record — took part, and that included 169 people who helped every day.

There were 236 first-time volunteers, and the age ranged from 2 to 77.

Those volunteers helped pull 368 tires out of the river. In case you were wondering, 368 tires weigh 7.3 tons.

According to a release from Project AWARE, the volunteers went 55 miles on the Cedar River, paddling and cleaning from the Iowa-Minnesota state line through Mitchell and Floyd counties and ending at Howard’s Woods Rec Area near Nashua.

Volunteers from all around the United States came to work in Iowa and spend a week on the river, camping at various spots along the way including two nights in Charles City.

“We’re hoping to see the same level of interest next year,” said Iowa Department of Natural Resources Project AWARE Coordinator Lynette Seigley.

Transporting those people to and from the river became more of an issue this year for Project AWARE simply due to the number who came out.

“When you’ve got over 200 volunteers (per day) it takes a long time with vans, so bus shuttles really worked well to move a large number of people,” Seigley said. “The volunteers were very patient.”

Getting people, canoes, kayaks and supplies to the river accesses, then removing all of them and their gear plus the trash collected, creates a lot of logistical moving parts for Seigley and her volunteers to work with.

“It went extremely well thanks to the local planning committee members and the communities along the way,” Seigley said. “The staff that I had, they’re veteran and experienced individuals. It went very smoothly.”

Metal scraps that were collected were donated to communities along the river to use.

“For 10 years we used to do a sculpture project with David Williamson, who’s working on completion of a sculpture in Charles City right now,” Seigley said. “Since that time, we’ve offered scrap metal to local groups.”

If the groups are willing to haul the metal to a recycler they get to keep the cash.

“We love to see the money, the revenue go back to the local resources,” Seigley said. “Mitchell County and Floyd County Conservation handled the scrap during the week, and the scrap metal ended up being half of what we ended up pulling out of the river.”

Bridgestone Tire company took the tires at no cost to recycle, Seigley said.

The city of Ames took all of the dirty plastics to use in its energy recover program.

“I had a couple of volunteers that have been on the event for a couple of years, comment that this was a relatively clean river,” Seigley said. “I think that’s a compliment to the local counties, communities and users of that resource.”

The 28 tons pulled out of the Cedar River was not a lot compared to some of the other rivers Project AWARE has been involved with, Seigley said.

“It was an extremely scenic river and people really enjoyed being able to paddle it last week,” she said.

 

 

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