Waste line boxes installed around Antigo Lake
October 30, 2024
Antigo Lake and its shoreline will hopefully be just a little bit cleaner due to efforts made by one local group earlier this week.
Monday, several members of the Antigo chapter of Trout Unlimited installed three waste line boxes — essentially, small wooden trash bins — at unobtrusive locations at bridges along the dam, as well as those on Hudson and Watson Streets.
The waste line boxes are meant, of course, for forsaken fishing line, as well as other fishing paraphernalia like hooks discarded by the public.
Scott Henricks, the president of Antigo’s Trout Unlimited chapter, said the group decided to set up the boxes following a city council inland lakes committee meeting this summer.
“There were comments made about fishing line and hooks and stuff by the dams and city bridges, so I approached our membership and thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be a nice project for us to do on a local basis to put up some of these waste line boxes for the public to use so nobody gets entwined in used monofilament lines or hooks and stuff?’” said Henricks, who is also the city’s current 9th Ward Alderman. “So that’s kind of how this project got started.”
He said the waste line boxes could benefit wildlife — as well as residents who recreate around Antigo Lake — in more than one way.
“Lead weights and fish hooks, fish and birds can swallow those things and get caught in them. Maybe not so much on Antigo Lake so to speak, but in areas where motorboats are allowed, they can easily get tangled in the motors,” Henricks said. “Especially in the city, a lot of the people that are fishing off the bridges and the dam are kids, and you just have concern about the line and the hooks laying on the ground and maybe they step on it or pick it up and get hooked. So it’s kind of a safety issue too.”
Since Antigo’s chapter of Trout Unlimited began in 1978, it has fundraised for and assisted the DNR in numerous projects to improve streams and maintain cold water resources in the area, according to Henricks.
He called this latest installation project an “ongoing” one for members of the local chapter, which has put up around 20 similar waste line boxes at streams and fishing accesses around the county.
“We do go around a number of times during the summer to check them and clean them out and make sure that they’re not getting overfull,” Henricks said. “Basically, with the discussion at the inland lakes district meeting, we thought it would be a little thing that we could do. Through our fundraising banquets, we’re always asking the community to fund us and support us, so it’s good to return things back to the environment and the community.”
Click here for more information. »
October 30, 2024
Author:
Danny Spatchek
Source:
Antigo Daily Journal
Antigo Lake and its shoreline will hopefully be just a little bit cleaner due to efforts made by one local group earlier this week.
Monday, several members of the Antigo chapter of Trout Unlimited installed three waste line boxes — essentially, small wooden trash bins — at unobtrusive locations at bridges along the dam, as well as those on Hudson and Watson Streets.
The waste line boxes are meant, of course, for forsaken fishing line, as well as other fishing paraphernalia like hooks discarded by the public.
Left to right: Tom Demerits, Tim Gregurich, Dan Wink, and Scott Henricks.
Monday, the four members of the Antigo Trout Unlimited Chapter
put up three waste line boxes around Antigo Lake.
Monday, the four members of the Antigo Trout Unlimited Chapter
put up three waste line boxes around Antigo Lake.
Scott Henricks, the president of Antigo’s Trout Unlimited chapter, said the group decided to set up the boxes following a city council inland lakes committee meeting this summer.
“There were comments made about fishing line and hooks and stuff by the dams and city bridges, so I approached our membership and thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be a nice project for us to do on a local basis to put up some of these waste line boxes for the public to use so nobody gets entwined in used monofilament lines or hooks and stuff?’” said Henricks, who is also the city’s current 9th Ward Alderman. “So that’s kind of how this project got started.”
He said the waste line boxes could benefit wildlife — as well as residents who recreate around Antigo Lake — in more than one way.
“Lead weights and fish hooks, fish and birds can swallow those things and get caught in them. Maybe not so much on Antigo Lake so to speak, but in areas where motorboats are allowed, they can easily get tangled in the motors,” Henricks said. “Especially in the city, a lot of the people that are fishing off the bridges and the dam are kids, and you just have concern about the line and the hooks laying on the ground and maybe they step on it or pick it up and get hooked. So it’s kind of a safety issue too.”
Since Antigo’s chapter of Trout Unlimited began in 1978, it has fundraised for and assisted the DNR in numerous projects to improve streams and maintain cold water resources in the area, according to Henricks.
He called this latest installation project an “ongoing” one for members of the local chapter, which has put up around 20 similar waste line boxes at streams and fishing accesses around the county.
“We do go around a number of times during the summer to check them and clean them out and make sure that they’re not getting overfull,” Henricks said. “Basically, with the discussion at the inland lakes district meeting, we thought it would be a little thing that we could do. Through our fundraising banquets, we’re always asking the community to fund us and support us, so it’s good to return things back to the environment and the community.”
Click here for more information. »
