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- May 5, 2006
Skunk River Navy recipient of 2005 Governor's Iowa Environmental Excellence
Award
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Each fall, the Skunk River Navy at Iowa State University removes thousands
of pounds of trash from local streams.
Until recently the only satisfaction the group has received is knowing
they have done what they could to help the Ames environment.
Now the group can add an award from Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack.
The Skunk River Navy will be presented with a 2005 Governor's Iowa Environmental
Excellence Award on Thursday, May 11. The ceremony will be held at 2 p.m.
in the State Historical Society Building Auditorium in Des Moines. Sponsored
by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, the award recognizes the
Skunk River navy for its work with improving the water quality in the
state of Iowa.
"This is an award that is shared by over 500 student volunteers," said
Jim Colbert, associate professor of ecology, evolution and organismal
biology and the founder and coordinator of the Skunk River Navy. "Every
single one of these people should be recognized for their efforts to help
clean our streams."
Colbert, who coordinates the group's activities with Jim Holtz, academic
adviser in the Biology Program, says the award honors more than just the
students. Other groups that have been instrumental in the Skunk River
Navy's success include the ISU Learning Communities Program, the ISU Biology
Program, Story County Conservation Center, the Ames Resource and Recovery
Center, Happy Joe's Pizza, and IOWATER.
The Skunk River Navy was developed by Colbert and other environmental
enthusiasts in 1998 as a community service activity for the BEST (Biology
Education Success Team) learning community.
While a majority of the volunteers are Iowa State students, other faculty
and staff members, community members and Iowa State alumni also participate.
Four weekends each fall, the group pulls such items as refrigerators,
washing machines water heaters, engine blocks, cattle feeders, automobile
parts, port-a-potties, shopping carts and other garbage from the Skunk
River and its tributaries.
The opportunity provides young adults the chance to gain an environmental
ethic and improve the river's aesthetic qualities. In 2005 alone, the
Skunk River Navy removed nearly 10,000 pounds of trash from the river
and provided 142 person-days of service.
Prior to performing the community service, the group also conducts water
quality assessments for IOWATER.
"Many Iowa State students, even the biology majors, are relatively
unfamiliar with our local biological environment," Colbert said.
"By the end of the day they will have experienced a portion of that
environment first-hand."
Other groups adopt a highway and pick up trash along side the road. Colbert
will have none of that.
"Roadways are dull," he said. "Rivers are cool. Part of
my job as a teacher is to help students realize that the current condition
of our rivers isn't the way the natural environment should look. The Skunk
River Navy gives them an experience where they can encounter this human-impacted
natural environment first hand."
Photos from Oct. 1, 2005"voyage" of the Skunk
River Navy
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