MONTICELLO - With the Sangamon River at a low trickle after a long dry period, the exposed bottom reveals various objects it has concealed during its higher stages.

Near one bank - in a scenic area in Lodge Park which contains a picnic table - a tire protrudes from the mud, near a collection of bottles and a plastic piece from a children's game.

Mike Dixon, Piatt County Forest Preserve parks manager, said there are also large objects in the river, including a television set and a 55-gallon drum.

He and other administrators and leaders of conservation groups are counting on Sangamon River Clean-up Day, Saturday, Sept. 17, to return a few stretches of the river to its natural state. The volunteers will work in Lodge Park, Robert Allerton Park and various sites in Monticello.

"Hopefully we'll get a lot of volunteers," Dixon said.

Sandy Mason, one of the organizers of the event, the first of its kind in Monticello in recent memory, said she is expecting about 250 volunteers, who will work at three different sites.

"We're trying to make this a community wide effort," said Mason, a member of Allerton Allies, a group that restores natural areas in Allerton Park. Volunteers should dress to get muddy, with old clothes that cover arms and legs.

The idea is to make the river more attractive for people to use for canoeing and fishing, as well as more inhabitable for wildlife.

"There is new garbage coming in all the time," Mason said.

Volunteers will be given gloves, water bottles and snacks, from funding for the event by Archer Daniels Midland Co.

Floyd Allsop, Monticello's superintendent of city services, said the city owns about 200 acres adjacent to the river.

"We will get rid of all the trash and garbage the groups collect," Allsop said. "We are here to do what we can to help this project along. All of our city employees are encouraged to volunteer."

Jim Gortner, Allerton Park's director of operations, said this will be the first time a clean-up of the river will be held within the park.

The call has gone out to Allerton's regular corps of volunteers to come out to clean the park. Gortner said he believes the river is reasonably clean within the park.

"I am hoping we have a good draw to help out in other places in the Sangamon," he said.

The Prairie Rivers Network, a statewide group with a mission to protect rivers, is also sending help.

"I will be there and a lot of long-time volunteers will be there," said Kim Erndt, the group's watershed organizer.

Erndt, who works in the Champaign office, said Prairie Rivers has been leading clean-ups on the Salt Fork River, at Homer, for the past eight years.

"More and more people have been showing up every year," she said. "Hopefully we'll have the same kind of support for the Sangamon." Erndt said some trash enters river through storm drains, while other garbage is washed off of banks. It is a common problem throughout the nation for trash to detract from the beauty of rivers. Erndt is hoping people who come out will notice and continue to help.

"They will see how beautiful it is, with beautiful plants, beautiful birds," she said. "They will realize it is such a great treasure and become stewards of the river, and get involved with their community."

Mason said this will be the first of many regularly scheduled events to clean up the Sangamon in Piatt County.

"We are hoping in future years to expand it into other areas, into private lands," Mason said.

IF YOU GO

WHAT: Sangamon River Clean-up Day: volunteers will pick up trash

WHEN: 8:30 a.m. to noon, Saturday, Sept. 17

WHERE: meet at Monticello Municipal Building, 120 N. Hamilton St.; cleanup crews will be directed to sites in Monticello, Robert Allerton Park and Lodge Park

WHAT TO WEAR: Old clothes that cover arms and legs and sturdy shoes. Gloves will be provided.

INFORMATION: Call Prairie Rivers Network at 344-2371 or the city of Monticello at 762-2583

Huey Freeman can be reached at hfreeman@herald-review.com or 421-6985.