One of the most successful environmental cleanup efforts, Project A.W.A.R.E. (A Watershed Awareness River Expedition) will be going down another river in June.
      Volunteers are being sought for the effort that this year will clean up the north and middle Raccoon River between June 16 and 23.
      Monday, Kalona native Brandon Harland gave a program about the project, including a review of last year's work on the Iowa and English Rivers. The canoe brigade paddled into the Wellman, Kalona and Riverside areas, as well as Iowa City and Hills, taking 24.29 tons of "stuff" out of the waterways.
      The program was at the Kalona Public Library.
      Harland, a natural resources biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, called the seven-day and seven-night effort a service learning one. This project has attracted as many as l32 volunteers at one time - volunteers, who by the way, pay $120 to do it.
      There have been a lot of repeaters since the first A.W.A.R.E. river cleaning in 2003. For the most part, the trash taken from the rivers is 95 percent (or more) recycled.
      The 2005 expedition pulled out five tractors, one car, 734 refrigerators, nearly 11,000 tires and a whole lot more. In fact, the things cleared from the rivers would furnish entire businesses, including a farm supply one, Harland noted.
      Last year, the recycling tally was only 74 percent because a great deal involved Styrofoam and other insulation.
      "A lot of it had landed in the river from the tornado," said Harland, referring to the one that cut a wide swath through areas in Iowa City.
      One of the amusing parts of the trip was finding the English River highway identification sign in the English River. There also was a G36 sign with it.
      Harland explained that the project was inspired by one man's effort in 1997 to clean up the Mississippi River, "one piece of trash at a time."
      Six years later, the "one man, one river" became the Iowa DNR's project aimed at cleaning all the rivers in the state.
      The effort is open to all ages (and all ages have shown up), and is held in June because that is National River Month.
      There also have been sponsors who help along the way, as did Stumpf Construction last year.
      "They were a huge help at the English River Bridge site where we had a lot of trash," said Harland.
      He was instrumental in getting Project A.W.A.R.E. to come down the English River largely because he had a very good idea of what was in it.
      Those who take part, aside from the river traveling and camping, get catered meals, T-shirts, a DVD of the trip, a project garbage bag and the right to keep anything they find and may want.
      For an Ogden artist, that has proven to be metal he turned into sculptures that are on exhibit in the Wallace Building at the Iowa State Fairground.