from US President Barack Obama for their participation in the reef cleanup effort. The award recognizes "outstanding partnerships that make a significant contribution toward the restoration and protection of our Nation's coastal and marine environment" and is the only environmental award of its kind given by the White House. Two days later in Hollywood, California, Coastal America and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs David L. McGinnis awarded the partner cleanup team from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection the same award. In 2009, recovery began on July 24 with thirty Army and Navy divers at Hugh Taylor Birch State Park, where it was thought about 300,000 tires were caught against a natural reef. Loading the caught tires onto the Army craft Brandy Station, the first day's haul brought approximately 1,400 tires ashore. Wrapping up for the year in mid-August, Coastal America's William Nuckols told the Associated Press that cleanup efforts have thus far recovered approximately 73,000 tires from the reef. By the time other operations required the military to end their cleanup at Osborne Reef, 72,000 tires had been collected by soldiers, sailors, and coasties. 2015 onward In 2015, the state contracted with Industrial Divers Corporation (IDC) to remove the tires. From 2016–2019, the Florida Legislature allocated to the project. , IDC was removing 2000–5000 tires per week, had accumulated a total of 250 thousand so far, and still had two thirds of the tires to go. By 2021, 4Ocean announced their plan to retrieve Osborne Reef tires in a area north of the original drop site. The clean up would be partially funded by the sale of bracelets made out of reef tires. See also References 1970s establishments in Florida artificial reefs environment of Florida environmental disasters in the United States geography of Fort Lauderdale, Florida reefs of Florida