Daily Herald opinion: ‘You’re a visitor’: Outdoor enthusiasts need to clean up their gear, help protect wildlife areas

We often think of fishing as a great way to get a mental break from the stress of daily life. It's calming to stand on the shore with a rod and reel, hoping to catch a fish.

But even when we make a solo fishing trip to a local pond or lake, we are not truly alone.

There are multitudes of birds, turtles and other wildlife in our suburban parks and forest preserves. And there are instances when those animals get injured — some fatally — by the fishing lines, hooks and lures that anglers leave behind.

Being responsible and picking up trash should be a straightforward task for anyone fishing.

Still, Amy Tavolino of Wheaton knows firsthand that’s not always the case. For more than a decade, the volunteer for the Chicago Bird Collision Monitors has taken it upon herself to pick up fishing litter at preserves in DuPage County.

She has a message for anglers who plan to head out to suburban preserves in the coming months.

“Respect the preserves. You're a visitor,” Tavolino told our senior writer Katlyn Smith. “There's a lot of animals that call this place their home. And please clean up even if it's not yours.”

Following her advice can save an animal’s life.

Turtles can accidentally swallow hooks and lures. Birds can become so entangled in fishing line that they can’t free themselves and die.

Monofilament line poses a constant threat because it’s “very strong” and “takes hundreds of years” to decompose, according to Stephanie Touzalin, wildlife education supervisor at the DuPage Wildlife Conservation Center in Glen Ellyn.

“It can get tangled up in vegetation, wrapped around wildlife, and pollutes natural areas,” Touzalin said in an email.

To their credit, local forest preserve districts are taking steps to combat the problem.

Smith reported that the Lake County Forest Preserve District has monofilament recycling stations at heavily trafficked access points, including boat launches and fishing piers. The Kane County Forest Preserve District provides receptacles for discarded fishing line at many of its preserves.

Meanwhile, the DuPage County Forest Preserve District is working to educate the public in multiple ways, including through social media posts and an e-newsletter. The district also has signs showing pictures of injured wildlife and asking anglers to dispose of their used fishing line responsibly.

Still, Tavolino continues to find fishing trash during her regular visits to three forest preserves. Last summer, she and her husband filled a plastic bin with clumps of line, along with hooks and bobbers.

“I've talked to people fishing before, ‘Can you please clean up?’ And there's a lot of good people out there that say, ‘Yeah, I do all the time,’ ” Tavolino said. “And there are those that, they don't care. So it's hard to reach people, sometimes, but you got to keep doing it.”

Tavolino deserves kudos for the work she’s doing. We should each pitch in to help the next time we visit a park or forest preserve. If you find discarded fishing tackle on the ground, put it in a trash bin where it belongs.