From the Bottom Up
One Man's Crusade to Clean America's Rivers
Chad Pregracke with Jeff Barrow

Book Review

From the  Bottom Up: One Man's Crusade to Clean America's Rivers by Chad Pregracke with Jeff Barrow - Buy Now From Amazon

Reviewed by Marty Vanags

I often find it difficult to concentrate. It has been so bad lately I thought perhaps I was losing my mind. The amount of information we must comprehend today is reaching proportions that are difficult to fathom. I think the reason I have a hard time concentrating and dealing with one issue at a time is because of this phenomena. At least, that is what I am hoping. If only I would use the concepts and rules of David Allen and his book Getting Things Done (which I preach to everyone I meet and see), I could learn to concentrate and rid my mind of superfluous things. Discipline - it takes discipline - I keep telling myself.

So, in the midst of all this mind blitz comes the discovery of a book that describes a man of utter and complete concentration. I would not normally have purchased this book as it would not have interested me laying in the "new" section of our local bookstore. Instead, I picked this book up in my friend's office. He was doing some media work for the local community college who honored the subject of the book in the past week*. This book describes a person with a singular goal; someone who has obviously learned to concentrate. This book was so enjoyable to read, it helped me relax and take my mind off of all the issues and problems of the day.

From the Bottom Up: One Man's Crusade to Clean America's Rivers is a story by Chad Pregracke and Jeff Barrow about the creation and development of the Living Lands and Waters Foundation and Chad Pregracke's singlemindedness about cleaning up rivers. Talk about concentration. Over the past 12 years Pregracke and a whole host of volunteers have cleaned miles and miles of the Mississippi, Ohio, Illinois and Missouri rivers in the Midwest. In addition, Pregracke has journeyed to our nation's capital to clean up the garbage along the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers. Recognized by national and regional organizations for the work he has done, Pregracke has always ventured back to the river he loves and his goal to clean it up.

What impressed me so much about this story - also the story of entrepreneurs and others who achieve - is the relentless, insistent pursuit of his goal. Pregracke was not going to take no for an answer. Every time he turned around he was calling major corporations, federal agencies, local governments and major institutional environmental groups and simply asking them for help, money, volunteers, places to park boats and barges and cooperation. He is a simple person with a simple purpose: cleaning up the river. There is so much for everyone to learn about his story. The themes in this book and the story behind Pregracke are many but simple: Persistence pays off, be in the right place at the right time, work hard and good things will come to you, never take no for an answer, lead by example, stay focused, collaboration is the key and, finally,  "there is credit for everyone."

Pregracke's story is interesting to me because many of the places he talks about along the Mississippi and Illinois rivers are familiar places to me. While I grew up about two hours away from the Mississippi, I have always recognized its importance, beauty and significance in the American lexicon of history and commerce. In my youth, my family would take trips to Winona, Minnesota to visit friends, and the thrill was always crossing the Mississippi. In high school my friends and I would often venture to Dubuque, Iowa, crossing the frozen Mississippi to go skiing at a local resort (yes, there is a ski hill in Iowa!). In college, I would take US 51 and cross the Illinois River on the old steel bridge at LaSalle-Peru many times going to and from home. As an adult I have visited Starved Rock State Park, Mississippi Palisades, St. Louis, crossed the Ohio at Paducah, and many of the other locations mentioned in the book. The narrative of the landscape and scenes Pregracke and his co-author, Jeff Barrow, describe in the book are places I recognize and love.

The importance of the Mississippi as one of the world's major rivers was driven home to me when I was working with a delegation of government and business officials from Kazakhstan in 1995 in Rockford, Illinois. Through their Russian language interpreter I was describing the virtues of our fair city and the advantages of conducting trade with local companies, when during a lunch break one burly bear of a man came up to me, and in perfect English said to me, "So, how far is the Mississippi from here?" Shocked by his command of the language and impressed that he knew we were pretty close, I indicated we were not far, perhaps two hours. He quickly stressed his desire to see "one of the greatest rivers of the world" and in what amounted to a quick bark of stern Russian, said something to one of his "escorts" or handlers. A stern reply came right back at him. As he turned back to me I offered to drive him the next day (Saturday) to the big river, if he really wanted to see it, and deliver him to Chicago the next day. It was clear, however, the Russian handler was not going to loosen any restrictions and let him deviate from his centrally-planned schedule. Too bad for Boris. He was not going to see the Mississippi, but I was impressed nevertheless that he knew and understood the magnitude and scope of this mighty river.

Cleaning up the river in the manner that Pregracke and his cohorts conduct their effort is impressive. Starting with trucks and dumpsters in the first several years and graduating to barges, tugboats and water-borne classrooms in later years Pregracke has honed and developed a sophisticated technique and method for cleaning the river. Working their way up the river starting on the Ohio each year, his crew, which often changes each year, hauls tons of garbage from the rivers of the Midwest. In the beginning, that is all they did. Refrigerators, barrels, cars, abandoned boats - everything one could think of - was hauled out of the river. While the book describes in great detail the amount and volume of the garbage collected, I am sure no one can imagine the enormity of it all unless one was there to witness it. The book is written in first-person narrative form, and the level of detail allowed me to be right there with Pregracke and his crew walking through the muck, diving after sunken boats and being sore after a long hard day's work. The level of detail leaves some to think that Pregracke either has a tremendous memory or journals his activities each year, but the book doesn't really describe how we come to know all the minute details of his story. Maybe I'm just jealous that Pregracke can remember things from six years ago, and I can't remember what I ate for breakfast yesterday.

Pregracke is the guy who doesn't know enough not to ask the impossible question. No one told him he couldn't ask the Army Corps of Engineers to lease a couple of barges. No one told him he couldn't ask Anheuser-Busch, Alcoa, Cargill, Honda or any number of barge companies, freight companies or others for donations, material and equipment. No one told him he couldn't ask local mayors and other government officials for permission to use public property or volunteers. Pregracke is the guy everyone knows who is not necessarily courageous, but so rational (such as thinking "why wouldn't someone want to give me money to clean up the river, they use it, don't they?") that these questions and requests come naturally.

I decided to read this book because I thought with Pregracke's visit to Bloomington-Normal coming up it would be interesting to review a book with some local connection. What I found was a book describing a simple journey, a simple yet powerful journey of one "man" (Pregracke was basically a teenager when he started this project) and a simple project: clean up the river. By focusing on this single goal, he has achieved many great things. He has built awareness of the toll we humans take on our natural treasures; he has developed friendships and coalitions among competing groups who fight for environmental supremacy in their territory; he has simply carried out a task that required a couple boats and some strong backs in the beginning, and has turned it into a national movement with thousands of volunteers.

In the end, Chad Pregracke has been successful because he did one thing very well: he concentrated on a single goal, has never really strayed from that goal and has remained true to his mission. This discipline is something we can take, whether we are running a business, creating a movement or managing a non-profit, and learn from. Pregracke has the ultimate ability to concentrate. I hope I can shed all the mental baggage that has hitched onto my wagon and learn to concentrate again. Pregracke is an inspiration to us all. Concentrate...concentrate.

*Note: For more information, see our Resource Partner Spotlight: Heartland Community College.