During their prior visits to our stretch of the Missouri River, Missouri River Relief has removed tons of trash and debris from our riverfront. We look forward to supporting their 2025 return.
On Saturday, May 29th, 2025 the Missouri River Relief, and their volunteers, will again arrive for a major cleanup effort. One of their objectives is to return to the vacated marina and continue removal of the Styrofoam sections left there after the floods. These materials are particularly detrimental to the river and present a challenge for land side removals. In their 2023 visit, their volunteers removed 257 of these Styrofoam blocks and even more remain to be addressed in 2025.
For these cleanups, Back to the River provides not only funding but our members assisted with boat launching sites, camping facilities, land based trash removal and heavy equipment. The Missouri River Relief volunteers, however, are the heart of this effort. According to Colby Williams, a 10 year old clean-up participant “We need to protect wildlife. They were here first and then we polluted it, so we need to help clean it up”.
Missouri River Relief is a volunteer based, not-for-profit organization dedicated to connecting people to the Missouri River through volunteer river clean-ups, education and stewardship. We look forward to continuing our partnership with them.
Other Project Partners: The Cities of Council Bluffs and Omaha, Bell’s Brewing, the National Park Service, Lewis/Clark National Historic Trail, Hy-Vee, Fontenelle Forest, Keep Omaha Beautiful, Missouri Stream Team, Us Corps of Engineers, Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, Pottawattamie County Conservation and others.
Estimated Financial Support: Back to the River Contribution: $10,000.00
Estimated Total Project Cost: $22,800.00
Years: 2025
