A river expedition and an environment stewardship adventure come together in the 14th annual Project AWARE (A Watershed Awareness River Expedition) from July 11 – 15. This year, AWARE will tackle a 53-mile section of the Lower Des Moines River from Eldon in Wapello County to Turkey Run Access in Lee County.

A Project AWARE volunteer canoes down a river as part of an event that removes millions of tons of debris each year from a selected Iowa waterway.

Project AWARE is an Iowa Department of Natural Resources program in which volunteers remove trash from a portion of an Iowa river. Last year, a record number 443 volunteers pulled more than 30 tons of trash – scrap metal, household hazardous materials, tires and other debris – from a 63-mile stretch of northeastern Iowa’s Wapsipinicon River.

“Project AWARE isn’t for the person who’s afraid to get a little dirt under his or her fingernails,” the Iowa DNR reports on the event website. “While most of your time is spent in a canoe or kayak, you are still fully immersed in the wilderness, and eventually, you’re bound to get dirty. Prepare to find mud in awkward places, and potentially stinky things come in your canoe.”

In 2009, Project AWARE received the U.S. Department of the Interior’s “Take Pride in America” award in recognition of AWARE’s stewardship efforts.

Registration closed on June 17. Late entries will be accepted after this date, but participants will be charged a $10 per person late registration fee.