Trash Talk About Garbage on Waterways (...continued from April post)

   Project A.W.A.R.E. will host its 9^th annual volunteer river clean-up from July 9-16, 2011.  Volunteers will spend a day or up to the week helping to clean trash from 88.1 miles of the Little Turkey, Turkey, and Volga Rivers.  A.W.A.R.E. refers to ‘A Watershed Awareness River Expedition’ and is an Iowa DNR program.   

   Volunteers travel the rivers by canoes, tent-camp, pay for the provided meals, and may partake in nature and environmental programs in the PM.  Examples of this year’s programs include:  a canoe skills and safety class (IA DNR), an owl walk (Fayette County Conservation Board) and a hands-on fly casting demonstration (Hawkeye Fly Fishing Association & Dubuque Fly Fishers). 

   Please click on the link to the website if you would like to learn more about the program or to become a sponsor or volunteer.   http://www.iowadnr.gov/Recreation/CanoeingKayaking/ProjectAWARE.aspx

  Following the week-long river clean-up, I will attempt to provide readers with general information about the volunteers, & the pounds of trash removed from the rivers, along with some of the oddities discovered in the waterways.

   (And as I wrote in my first 'Trash Talk' post in April, 2011, if you happen to pick up trash from any waterway, anywhere, e-mail me a few lines and/or send me a picture so I may post it and encourage further waterway responsibility.)  Thanks, ~Twitch

Fishdecorah Website: A Great Catch

   This evening, my mouse took me on a field trip to the fishdecorah website:  http://www.fishdecorah.com/.   I was impressed.  No cutesy stuff (note ‘mouse’ and ‘field trip’ above), no protracted stories about one’s own fishing trips (really, I attempt brevity!), ….and it is not a fly fishing-specific site.  It is a site dedicated to the NE Iowa Driftless region, specifically Winneshiek County & surrounding areas, for those who enjoy any type of fishing and who care about the region’s environmental concerns, it’s geology, and how we can protect what we love.  In addition, it’s easily navigable and friendly, but without the excess fluff which can get in the way of tearing in to the meat of a topic.  I invite you to click on the link above and learn more about the Iowa waterways unique to NE Iowa (and where else in the Midwest can one fish for trout year-round?).