County conservation technician spearheads effort to clean up fishing spots
Terri Springer had seen one too many ugly snarled clusters of discarded fishing line along the shores of Fayette County’s lakes and streams.
“Unfortunately, too many people don’t even think about it,” said Springer, who works as a resource conservation technician for the Fayette County Conservation District. “They certainly don’t do it on purpose to snag a goose or a turtle in a deadly tangle. But fishing line that people throw away along the very same waters they enjoy fishing presents hazards, primarily to wildlife. The Fayette County Public Works Dept., which mows grass at our county parks, says it even tangles around their mower blades.”
Unlike a lot of people who recognize a hazard but stop at complaining, Springer decided to act. She knew about a nation-wide initiative called the Monofilament Recovery and Recycling Project, supported by the Boat U.S. Foundation and Berkley, a leading manufacturer of monofilament fishing line.
It’s a simple approach that gives anglers a place to responsibly dispose of unwanted line in 4-inch PVC pipe receptacle-tubes installed at convenient locations along shorelines.
Springer worked successfully with Annie Quinn, executive director of the Jacobs Creek Watershed Association to write a $2,500.00 grant proposal to the Community Foundation of Fayette County to launch the project at two popular county angling hotspots–Dunlap Creek Lake in Menallen Township and at Jacobs Creek County Park in Bullskin Township, also known as Greenlick Dam. The Jacobs Creek Watershed Association served as the non-profit grant recipient and the Conservation District provided staff time and sought volunteers to construct, install and monitor the devices.
Volunteers weren’t hard to find. The Brownsville Area High School Environmental Club stepped forward to implement the project at Dunlap Creek Lake and Boy Scout Troop 150, Bullskin Township, took on the work at Jacobs Creek Park.
The line receptacles are “low-tech,” inexpensive and conspicuous. Anglers can’t help but notice the white tubes standing around the shores, mounted on 4×4 posts. The tubes stand about five feet high, capped by a 90-degree “elbow” at the top and a chamber at the bottom that holds deposited line. A screw-out cap allows volunteers to periodically remove deposited line and send it to Berkly for recycling. Recycled line is melted, re-molded and used to manufacture fish habitat structures, sunk in lakes to provide cover and nest sites for fish.
The groups built 20 receptacles, half of which went to each lake’s shorelines. Springer hopes to expand the project to Virgin Run Dam in Franklin Township.
“We have a number of partners in this project,” Springer said. “When we went to Lowes and picked up the materials, a manager asked us good-naturedly what we were doing with so much pipe. Well, the guy was a fisherman and when we explained that we were building fishing line recycling stations, Lowes gave us a nice discount on the materials.”
Springer said the tubes are effective at storing line until it can be collected, but she’d read about problems in other states when cavity-nesting birds — like bluebirds and tree swallows — tried to build nests inside and got tangled in the recycled line.
“It was the exact problem we were trying to prevent, so we had to find a solution,” she related.
Springer found a contact in the Missouri Dept. of Conservation who had devised a simple rubber flap clamped over the opening that prevents birds from entering, but allows a determined angler to push the line inside for safe storage.
In addition to Lowes, the Jacobs Creek Watershed Association and the Community Foundation of Fayette County, other partners in the project are the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission and the Fayette County Public Works Dept.
“The kids did a great job. They were enthusiastic and committed,” Springer said. “They did a lot of background research so they understood the need for the project. We wanted to get the tubes in place for the opening day of trout season.”
Discarded line has injured or killed eagles, ospreys, turtles (freshwater and sea turtles), waterfowl, wading birds, alligators, otters, beavers, even seals and dolphins. Sea turtles sometimes eat masses of line, mistaking it for jellyfish. One sea turtle recovered off the Florida coast had ingested 590 feet of fishing line. Castoff line also poses a hazard to human swimmers. Experts estimate that it will take 500 years for monofilament line to decompose in the environment, meaning that every foot of line discarded in the nation’s waterways is still out there.
Nation-wide the Monofilament Recovery and Recycling Project recycles about 3,000 miles of fishing line every year. It’s beginning to work in Fayette County.
“The day after the installation, I went to Dunlap, and four of the tubes already had line in them,” Springer said. “The dangers of discarded fishing line are so preventable. It just takes a moment of thought and respect for our waters and the wild things that live there.”
With offices located at Nickman Plaza on Rte. 119 in North Union Township, the Fayette County Conservation District manages diverse programs to serve the public and protect Fayette County’s environment. Initially conceived to assist farmers in preventing soil erosion, the district now also reviews erosion and sedimentation control plans for various developments, and conducts environmental education programs. The district’s board of directors, county residents appointed by the county commissioners, also directs the technical expertise of cooperating state and federal conservation agencies to projects within the county.