Volunteers are wanted for an annual project Saturday to clean up litter and debris along stretches of the Cedar River State Water Trail and Dobbins Creek.

Staff at Austin’s Jay C. Hormel Nature Center is organizing the cleanup as part of its fourth annual Water Festival that began on Monday.

The festival’s theme is “Clean Water: We All Live Downstream.”

The cleanup also is part of the Cedar On Saturday, when nature center staff and community volunteers will paddle and clean up two sections of waterways from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. Focus areas will be the Cedar River from Austin Mill Pond downtown to the Marcusen Park baseball stadium and Dobbins Creek from East Side Lake to its confluence with the Cedar River at Austin’s Driesner Park.

Each cleanup volunteer will earn a free kayak or canoe rental ($10 value) but registration is required before Saturday. To pre-register, contact the nature center at 507-437-7519 or summerintern@hormelnaturecenter.org. Water Festival info is available online at www.hormelnaturecenter.org/water-festival.html.

Also on Saturday, the nature center’s Water Festival will offer staff-led water quality testing of Austin waterways during two sessions: 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. The project will check for levels of nitrates, phosphates, dissolved oxygen, E. coli and turbidity.

City of Austin’s water quality specialist Nels Rasmussen will lead an effort from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. Saturday to attach “No Dumping, Drains to River” plates on city storm drains in the city. Those interested can register with Rasmussen at 507-437-9955 or nelsr@ci.austin.mn.us.

Since 2011, CRWD’s Adopt-A-River initiative — inspired by the state’s cleanup program — has involved dozens of volunteers removing several tons of garbage and flood debris, including more than 1,100 tires, from the Cedar River State Water Trail in Mower County. CRWD has created cleanup routes, lined up volunteers, assisted with cleanup logistics, and paid for the proper disposal of removed items.

The Austin-based Cedar River Canoe & Kayak Rental Service, which Brian and Dorothy Pirmantgen started last summer, also offers canoes at no cost for Adopt-A-River volunteers to use for cleanup work.

People also can help the effort by picking up litter in their neighborhoods to prevent those items from being washed into the waterways via stormwater systems and by reporting any illegal dumping activities, such as with tires.

Anyone interested in CRWD’s Adopt-A-River effort can contact Tim Ruzek at 507-434-2603 or by email at tim.ruzek@mowerswcd.org. Cleanup routes are available for the Cedar River State Water Trail and other public waterways within the Cedar River Watershed.