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Volunteers needed for 30th annual Ijams River Rescue April 6

ijams river rescue
Ijams River Rescue volunteers clean trash from the river; image submitted.

Sign up to volunteer for the 30th Ijams River Rescue and you’ll have some good “clean” fun on Saturday, April 6, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Presented by TVA with support from Lowe’s, Ijams Nature Center’s annual community-wide event focuses on removing trash and tires from sites along the Tennessee River and its creek tributaries from the river’s headwaters in Knoxville to the shores of Loudon County.

Volunteers can register using an online, interactive site map accessible from the Ijams River Rescue page on Ijams’ website, www.Ijams.org. Available slots are filled on a first-come, first served basis, and typically book quickly. The deadline to register is March 29 or until all slots have been filled.

Those wishing to sign up as a group should have all members register individually so that they can complete a waiver and provide personal contact information should Ijams need to communicate with everyone at a particular site.

This year’s event is receiving a helping hand from Living Lands & Waters (LL&W) thanks to a partnership with Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful.

Created by Chad Pregracke in 1998, LL&W is a nonprofit environmental organization that hosts river cleanups, watershed conservation initiatives, workshops, tree plantings and other key conservation efforts. LL&W has removed more than 10 million pounds of litter from waterways since its inception. The group first came to Knoxville with its barge in 2015 to kick off its Tennessee River Cleanup during the Ijams River Rescue. Pregracke challenged TVA and Keep Tennessee Beautiful to establish an organization that would continue river cleanups on an ongoing basis, which led to the creation of the nonprofit Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful.

Ijams River Rescue is a part of Ijams Nature Center’s Take Action! activities, which run through April 14 and focus on big and small ways to protect the planet, from volunteer workdays and educational programs to movies, a slow food potluck and more.

Ijams also is partnering with Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful to present a Take Action! talk by Dan Breidenstein, who serves as LL&W’s multimedia specialist and leads the group’s Invasive Species Removal Project and the Adopt-A-Stream Mile Program. Breidenstein will speak Friday, April 5, at 7 p.m. at the Ijams Visitor Center. Admission is free, but registration is required.

The 30th annual Ijams River Rescue presented by TVA with support from Lowe’s is sponsored by City of Knoxville Stormwater Management, Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful, Dow, First Tennessee Foundation, Grayson Subaru, Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, Thompson Engineering, WestRock CP, LLC, WUTK 90.3 The Rock, American Rivers, AmeriCorps, Knoxville TVA Employees Credit Union, Waste Connections, and the Water Quality Forum.

Ijams Nature Center is a nonprofit, 315-acre educational nature center for all ages, abilities and walks of life. Ijams’ mission is to encourage stewardship of the natural world by providing an urban green-space for people to learn about and enjoy the outdoors through engaging experiences. Located just three miles from downtown Knoxville, Ijams features 12 miles of hiking and mixed-use trails, a public access river dock, swimming, boating, biking and more. The center offers hundreds of educational programs annually, from day camps and school field trips to outdoor and classroom education programs on beginner birding and hiking to wildflower walks and family adventures. The Ijams grounds and trails are open every day from 8 a.m. until dusk. The Visitor Center is open Monday through Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, visit Ijams.org or call 865-577-4717.

Published March 5, 2019



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