Living Lands & Waters 2006 Accomplishments

River Cleanups – LL&W coordinated and participated in 64 community-based cleanups with over 1,900 volunteers in 22 cities and collected approximately 115 tons of garbage in 8 months.

Big River Educational Workshops – Twelve educational workshops were held in 12 cities with an outstanding attendance of 330 participants, bringing our total number of teacher participants in the last three years to 1,196. Also, our first excursion workshops took place in July, and proved to be a tremendous success.

Riverbottom Restoration Projects – LL&W planted 2,050 trees in 5 states; removed 2 ½ acres of honeysuckle on Smith’s Island in LeClaire, IA; restored the goat prairie in Ferryville, WI; and cleared a nature trail in Cassville, WI. The crew was also involved in honeysuckle removal and timber stand improvement for oak trees in Monona, IA, by the Yellow River.

Adopt-A-Mile – The Adopt-A-Mississippi River Mile Program currently has 83 groups cleaning 164.1 miles on a regular basis. We are also starting the Adopt-An-Illinois River Mile Program.

Year In Review

March
LL&W kicked off the season on the Ohio River in Louisville, KY, where we hosted a month of river cleanups and 5 educational workshops. Five hundred volunteers participated in the cleanups and 150 participants joined us for the workshops. In 12 days we collected 10 tons of trash and over 500 tires from the banks of the Ohio River.

April/May
Capital River Relief – For the third year in a row, we spent a month and a half hosting river cleanups along the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers in the Washington, DC area. In collaboration with Koch Industries and the Earth Conservation Corps, we were able to make this year’s CRR project the most successful one yet! We held 18 days of cleanups with 2 sessions each day. Seven hundred volunteers collected approximately 70 tons of garbage between April 1 and May 10.

June
The crew headed to the Illinois River to host 10 community cleanups in 4 cities, as well as 14 sponsor cleanups with Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland. We also held 3 educational workshops with an attendance of 80 participants!

July
LL&W traveled to St. Louis to join forces with long-time sponsor Anheuser-Busch to clean up the Mississippi riverfront on Saturday, July 8. Four hundred volunteers showed up to fill 1,640 bags, remove 106 tires and collect a total of 10 tons of trash in only three hours! We held our first 4-day traveling educational workshop where 20 teachers joined us from St. Louis, MO, to Hannibal, MO. This was immediately followed by a 3-day workshop where 30 teachers traveled with us from Hannibal, MO, to Burlington, IA. We also conducted 4 sponsor cleanups along the Mississippi River in July.

August
LL&W traveled a long way from the Mississippi River to Sturgis, SD, to implement the first recycling program at the Sturgis Rally, the largest motorcycle rally in the world (500,000 people) in the Black Hills. This project proved to be a huge success and we look forward to returning next year. August 17 was our 4th Annual Barge Party with approximately 470 guests in attendance. The LL&W crew hosted a site for the Xstream Cleanup on August 19, where 1,500 volunteers cleaned up over 31 locations. We held a river cleanup, sponsor cleanup and educational workshop in Dubuque, IA.

September
LL&W coordinated river cleanups in Omaha, NE, and Prairie du Chien, WI, and hosted an educational workshop in Prairie du Chien, WI. We also participated in honeysuckle removal on Smith’s Island in LeClaire, IA.

October
LL&W partnered with the Bettendorf Parks & Recreation Department and Trees Forever to plant over 100 trees in Bettendorf, IA, and held a tree planting and cleanup in Kansas City, KS.

Hurricane Katrina Relief (October)
We were honored to be asked to team up with Mississippi Power and 15 other organizations to clean up shores of the Gulf Coast in Biloxi, Mississippi, as a part of the “Renew Our Rivers: A New Beginning for South Mississippi” campaign. We enjoyed visiting with some of the people we assisted last year in New Orleans.

What’s Next?
Tree plantings and restoration events are scheduled through the middle of November, and honeysuckle removal will take place throughout the winter in Louisville, KY. We are looking forward to coming to a river near you in 2007!

Thank you for making this all possible!!