Like all great adventures, Project AWARE is relived year after year in the stories that emerge during a week of camping and river clean-up. This year’s AWARE (A Watershed Awareness Expedition) seemed to have more than its fair share of fodder for storytelling.

Project AWARE volunteers prepare to launch their boats at the south end of the Klondike Rapids on the Big Sioux, the site of a former low-head dam. People came from Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Carolina, South Dakota and Wisconsin to be part of this annual event. The daily average number of volunteers was 167. Photo courtesy of Chuck Tonelli

There were Asian carp jumping out of the Big Sioux River, sometimes landing in the canoes of volunteers. A young, disoriented eagle that was unable to fly was rescued from the river bank and brought to SOAR (Save Our Avian Resources) for rehab. And, for the first time, another state partnered with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources in the annual environmental stewardship effort.

The South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks joined the Iowa DNR and 88 sponsors – including the Hygienic Laboratory – to dig out and remove nearly 29 tons of trash from a 91-mile stretch of the Big Sioux River.

For seven days beginning on July 12, Project AWARE volunteers and event staffers followed the long, looping Big Sioux, removing tires, car parts, scrap metal and other debris. Just three weeks earlier, the river had overflowed its banks causing record flooding, which quickened its flow and left silt lining its banks and blocking access points.

After a day of working in mud and unusually cool river water, the AWARE team (totaling 388 for the week) camped overnight on the shore or in the tiny communities that dot the sparsely populated area between Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and Sioux City, Iowa.

Volunteers, who ranged in age from 2 to 80, worked part or all of the week and represented 11 states: Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Carolina and Wisconsin.

A motorcycle’s remains head for the recycling pile, thanks to limnologists Seth Zimmermann (left) and Kyle Skoff (center), and a Project AWARE volunteer. Photo courtesy of Iowa DNR

“The best thing about this year’s event was the weather – it was cool and sunny all week, and the only rain we saw was on the drive up,” said Seth Zimmermann, limnologist. “The volunteers, as always, were amazing and make the event happen. It was also really great working with another state. It brought together another pool of like-minded individuals and a number of sponsors came onboard to help make the event a success.”

Zimmerman and several other Hygienic Lab staff have worked as AWARE event staff since 2005. Joining him this year were fellow limnologists Mike Birmingham, Mark Johnston, Travis Morarend and Kyle Skoff. He also contributes to project planning that is led by Iowa DNR’s Lynnette Seigley.

“A much higher than normal number of volunteers had never been to the Big Sioux River or northwest Iowa/southeast South Dakota before,” Seigley said. “One of the goals of moving Project AWARE around the state each year is to allow volunteers to experience a new river and new part of the state. That was certainly the case this year.”

Additional photos of the 2014 Project AWARE are available on Flickr and in the Lab Link August photo feature.