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Iowan's Cleaning rivers by Canoe

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This would have been the 18th year of Project AWARE, A Water Awareness River Expedition.
Sadly because of the Covid , it won't happen.

An amazing group of participants, that spend a week, in July cleaning up one of our river systems, here in Iowa, from canoes..

Brian Soenen, the originater of this great event, along with his staff, make it possible to clean about 50 miles of rivers in our state. As many as 400 individuals, some just for a day, gather incredible amounts of trash, and 80-90 % of it is recycled.

A link. https://www.facebook.com/iaprojectaware/

I will miss this group, as most of the participants have become great friends ! I've been fortunate to join them for 15 yrs, and will dearly miss the group, this year !

Jim
 
We do it here but it's pretty depressing. It never gets to be less. Last year we pulled a huge tractor tire half buried in mud from the river. Required a backhoe and a winch to get it out. Tires are thrown off bridges more often than is believable in the 21st century.
 
I pulled these lovely items out of a local river right behind my house earlier this week. Unfortunately there's also a lot of little stuff that's pretty much impossible to get at safely. I need to get one of those poles with the little fingers at the end so I can reach more stuff.
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Several years ago, when the water levels were low I picked up 13 tires out of a mile off river.

So this year ! I'd like to Challenge every Paddler on this site to pick up trash from what ever stream or lake that they can, and Post a pic ! Tell the story and recycle what they can !

Thanks !

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Great job Jim!
We have never participated in a group cleanup on the water.
We would like to though, just to meet some fellow paddlers and get some reassurance that at least a few people care.
Our local bicycle club holds an annual trail cleanup and we have participated in that.

We may be on a record pace this season.
We have only been out four times and have accumulated over 300 pounds of trash.
In our experience, the large trash is found in the Spring when the water and shoreline are more clear of vegetation.
Later in the year, the smaller trash floats around after the power boat poofs and lake shore slobs release their waves of garbage.

Please check out American Rivers and take their pledge: https://www.americanrivers.org/river-cleanup-map/
 

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Way to go Mnoutdoorguy ! Tires are the most common of the bigger Items ! A good friend has an uncanny ability to finding them ! Great job ! Thank you !

Tractor tires are considered "Trophy Trash" as it takes two canoes to safely bring them in !

A cleanup event like AWARE. enabled me to paddles streams , that otherwise I would never have ! There is a Nucules of paddlers, more like Family, that show up every year to ours. July is the best month here, as the water levels make it easier to spot things like tires, in our dirty rivers here !

I'll be digging out the Old Aluminums for it !
Thanks for the link !

Jim
 
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I'll take the challenge. I put large garbage bags in my day pack and vehicle yesterday to take away the excuse of not being prepared.

13 tires is impressive and so is 300 pounds. But how many stethoscopes have you recovered? ;) I found this yesterday.

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I find it very unfortunate to see a waste temp in nature, the lack of respect for a good number of people, ,,,,, alas it is everywhere the same problem.
Thanks for the pickup.
 
Pigs certainly contribute to the Pollution in our Iowa Rivers ! Nitrate levels are scary high !

Yeah Not the Pig's Fault !
 
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I always get a couple of bobbers each time out.


That is funny ! On a clean up, of a man made lake . We gathered almost a 5 gal pail of bobbers. I always hooked a few on the back side of my cap, and soon became known as " Bobber Jim"

More to the story. Years ago a friend bought a Brand New wide brimmed hat, $10, just before entering the BWCA for a week long trip.
The wind came up and blew the hat off his head and into the lake. It sank like a rock !
I told him if he would have had a couple of Bobbers hooked on to his hat, He might have saved it !
Lucky for him we had another Ugly hat for him to wear.

Moral to the story ? Bobbers are more than just for Fishing !

Nice collection of Bobbers Ken ! Put a couple of bigger one on your hat ! ;)

Jim
 
OK trying to keep the thread alive. Brought these items back today. I don't fish any more so now I just throw away the lures since I don't like having the sharp rusty hooks around.
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There's not much of a backstory other than this is the stretch of river that I'm trying to improve (pic taken today). It's really not too bad in terms of garbage so a little clean-up effort goes a long way towards making a noticeable improvement.
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I thought about removing the hooks also. I have a couple without hooks and they just don't look as good. Plan on removing the barbs and filing down the tips of the hooks on the current project.

Couple of tips on making one. Use the thinnest coat hanger you can, it makes it easier to shape and cut. I used fishing line but thinking about changing out with sewing thread, easier to tie and doesn't slide around as much. Once I get the balance points right put a little glue on it to hold them in place. I used and old fishing pole I pulled out of the water to hang it from.

Kayak_Ken (in a canoe)
 
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