These photos are from the annual “Illyfest” river cleanup, held each year by a group of local whitewater enthusiasts.  This cleanup takes place in the spring of each year, in the Wild and Scenic portion of the Illinois River, just downstream of the Illinois Valley area that we propose to clean up under our in-stream project.  At the Illyfest, they pull large amounts of trash from one section of the river.  In Motherline’s Bank-to-Bank project, we propose to remove the trash that is being generated in the populated up-stream portions of the river, before it gets to the Wild and Scenic portion of the river.  We will make sure to take our own “Before” photos when we start the project!  You can see some of our Clean Sweep “Before” and “After” pictures of trash we’ve cleaned up in the public woods, here.

Also, you can see a 2-minute mini-documentary that Oregon Public Broadcasting made for our Clean Sweep project, here.  This in-stream work that we begin next year is the direct continuation of our Clean Sweep efforts.