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Project Aware members clearing the way for a second year
By JOE WILKINSON, Department of Natural Resources
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) -- Heading toward shore, the payload in the canoe began taking shape.
Jutting scraps of sheet metal poked over the side. A bent iron fence post. Broken bottles and faded plastic bottles littered the bottom. More than you expect to find on a summer pleasure paddle. But this was much more than just a canoe trip.
These Project Aware canoeists hit the water at 5 a.m., clearing trash from the shoreline of Big Creek Lake, near Polk City. Four hours later, the last of them returned to Trash Central, where the results of their scavenger hunt could be sorted. Bottles went in one pile. Aluminum cans in another. Plastic in another.
The huge, cabinet stereo speaker went to its own pile. A few feet away, the metal piled up -- more than a ton of it on this day. Items ranging from routine trash; ductwork, barbed wire and scrap iron to oddities like an electric toaster, an egg beater, an aluminum ball bat, even a battered 1949 car license plate.
Each day of the weeklong excursion was spent cleaning stream or lake banks or improving habitat.
"I am amazed at what people leave behind," admitted Cara Braveman. "We tried to pull out two cars but we had no place to put them. It's truly amazing to see all the garbage."
Braveman, from Waterloo, was one of 100 people who spent all or part of the week on the roving trash detail.
"It is recreation and canoeing down river, but most importantly, it is about understanding our watersheds," underscores Brian Soenen, from the Department of Natural Resources Iowawater program, coordinator of the eight day journey through north-central Iowa. "It's the things we do on the landscape -- the roads we build, the fields that we farm, the buildings we construct -- how those things affect what we see in our waterways."
Each day, the group worked on a local project; usually at a state or county park or recreation area.
But recreation was a big part of it, too. Heavy rains had the original route -- the upper stretches of the Des Moines River -- running too high for a week's worth of paddling. Plan B pieced together day trips on calmer waters, with participants still pitching their tents in the original campgrounds.
"It's great to get on some stretches of river that I've never done before," recalled Nathan Lein of Oelwein, just before pushing off into the north branch of the Skunk River, at Story City. "(I've paddled) quite a few rivers in northeast Iowa; the Upper Iowa, the Turkey, the Volga, but (this) is more challenging; to get into a canoe and test your skill against the water."
The high water actually opened up a couple streams that could never have been navigated in a normal flow year.
Last year, in the inaugural Project Aware, canoeists explored the Maquoketa River from Backbone State Park to its confluence with the Mississippi River. Next year, it shifts to northwest Iowa, to enlist new paddlers...and to keep the view changing for those who return.
"I'd do it again in a minute," admitted Larry Taylor of Solon. "The people were just fantastic. And the scenery! I never thought of the Des Moines River with a deep valley; with bluffs. Parts of it went straight up and down."
He and his wife, Carolyn (my neighbors, by the way), found out about Project Aware after joining the Iowawater monitoring program. Besides the jaw-dropping sights, there was plenty of work in their working vacation.
"The physical part of it was great," offered Carolyn. "It was challenging, but you felt pretty good after it."
She thought back to what was probably the crown jewel of their work details; clearing over two acres of invasive poplar trees in a Webster County recreation area.
As the area is burned and regrows, the never plowed prairie beneath should explode with grasses and flowers Various evening programs; ranging from local geology to Iowa bats drew high marks from the Taylors.
"They were topics we never would have thought about otherwise," acknowledged Carolyn.
Hard work and fast-paced river canoeing made for good friends, in a hurry.
"Just a great group of people to be with," proclaimed Greg Soenen, of Goldfield. "There's a guy from a sausage place, a carpenter, a teacher. Everybody has a different job, but we all have the same interests. We all want to have clean water. Cleaning the trash isn't going to solve it, but it gets people aware of our waterways."
Jutting scraps of sheet metal poked over the side. A bent iron fence post. Broken bottles and faded plastic bottles littered the bottom. More than you expect to find on a summer pleasure paddle. But this was much more than just a canoe trip.
These Project Aware canoeists hit the water at 5 a.m., clearing trash from the shoreline of Big Creek Lake, near Polk City. Four hours later, the last of them returned to Trash Central, where the results of their scavenger hunt could be sorted. Bottles went in one pile. Aluminum cans in another. Plastic in another.
The huge, cabinet stereo speaker went to its own pile. A few feet away, the metal piled up -- more than a ton of it on this day. Items ranging from routine trash; ductwork, barbed wire and scrap iron to oddities like an electric toaster, an egg beater, an aluminum ball bat, even a battered 1949 car license plate.
Each day of the weeklong excursion was spent cleaning stream or lake banks or improving habitat.
"I am amazed at what people leave behind," admitted Cara Braveman. "We tried to pull out two cars but we had no place to put them. It's truly amazing to see all the garbage."
Braveman, from Waterloo, was one of 100 people who spent all or part of the week on the roving trash detail.
"It is recreation and canoeing down river, but most importantly, it is about understanding our watersheds," underscores Brian Soenen, from the Department of Natural Resources Iowawater program, coordinator of the eight day journey through north-central Iowa. "It's the things we do on the landscape -- the roads we build, the fields that we farm, the buildings we construct -- how those things affect what we see in our waterways."
Each day, the group worked on a local project; usually at a state or county park or recreation area.
But recreation was a big part of it, too. Heavy rains had the original route -- the upper stretches of the Des Moines River -- running too high for a week's worth of paddling. Plan B pieced together day trips on calmer waters, with participants still pitching their tents in the original campgrounds.
"It's great to get on some stretches of river that I've never done before," recalled Nathan Lein of Oelwein, just before pushing off into the north branch of the Skunk River, at Story City. "(I've paddled) quite a few rivers in northeast Iowa; the Upper Iowa, the Turkey, the Volga, but (this) is more challenging; to get into a canoe and test your skill against the water."
The high water actually opened up a couple streams that could never have been navigated in a normal flow year.
Last year, in the inaugural Project Aware, canoeists explored the Maquoketa River from Backbone State Park to its confluence with the Mississippi River. Next year, it shifts to northwest Iowa, to enlist new paddlers...and to keep the view changing for those who return.
"I'd do it again in a minute," admitted Larry Taylor of Solon. "The people were just fantastic. And the scenery! I never thought of the Des Moines River with a deep valley; with bluffs. Parts of it went straight up and down."
He and his wife, Carolyn (my neighbors, by the way), found out about Project Aware after joining the Iowawater monitoring program. Besides the jaw-dropping sights, there was plenty of work in their working vacation.
"The physical part of it was great," offered Carolyn. "It was challenging, but you felt pretty good after it."
She thought back to what was probably the crown jewel of their work details; clearing over two acres of invasive poplar trees in a Webster County recreation area.
As the area is burned and regrows, the never plowed prairie beneath should explode with grasses and flowers Various evening programs; ranging from local geology to Iowa bats drew high marks from the Taylors.
"They were topics we never would have thought about otherwise," acknowledged Carolyn.
Hard work and fast-paced river canoeing made for good friends, in a hurry.
"Just a great group of people to be with," proclaimed Greg Soenen, of Goldfield. "There's a guy from a sausage place, a carpenter, a teacher. Everybody has a different job, but we all have the same interests. We all want to have clean water. Cleaning the trash isn't going to solve it, but it gets people aware of our waterways."
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