Volunteers muscle 40 tons of trash from the lower Des Moines River
DES MOINES RIVER – Southeastern Iowa’s Des Moines River is now 40 tons of trash lighter, thanks to the efforts of 329 volunteers. This July, 329 volunteers took part in the 14th annual Project AWARE, traversing 52 miles of the Des Moines River through Wapello, Davis, Van Buren and Lee counties from Eldon to Croton. Project AWARE, which stands for A Watershed Awareness River Expedition, involves hundreds of people who spend anywhere from one to five days exploring Iowa’s rivers and picking up trash. "We were so surprised and impressed at the large number of volunteers who helped all week cleaning the trash from our river,” said Stacey Reese, Executive Director of Villages of Van Buren. “There were even a few locals who helped out. I think the magnitude of this event helped make a lot of people more aware of how important it is to be good stewards of our waterways. So now, it's up to us to keep it clean." Items removed included a motorcycle, boat, Dumpster, severa...