Chesterton Tribune

 

 

Ikes and Moraine Ridge donate recycling bins for old fishing gear to local parks

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The Moraine Ridge Wildlife Rehabilitation Center and the Porter County Chapter of the Izaak Walton League of America have donated fishing-gear recycling bins to the Rogers-Lakewood Park and the new Brookdale County Park in Liberty Township.

Stephanie Kadletz, director of Moraine Ridge Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, and Bonnie Swarner and Susan Swarner of the Ikes made the donations: four bins to Dan Lukes at Rogers-Lakewood and one to Matt Brown at Brookdale.

The bins will give anglers a place to safely dispose of old fishing line, bobbers, and hooks, preventing wild birds and turtles from getting tangled in them. Many animals every year are taken to veterinarians and Moraine Ridge with injuries from fishing equipment.

This project began with a conversation between Kadietz and Bonnie Swarner while the latter was volunteering at Moraine Ridge, and developed further when Bonnie and Susan Swarner met Clint Kowalik with the DNR Fish and Wildlife Division, whose “lifelong dream (is) to have these bins at all public access sites.”

Local conservationist Joe Arnold was enlisted to build the units and attach the signs provided by the sponsors, and the plan now is to install other units at many other sites in Porter County.

Anyone with a site in mind for a bin and the willingness to collect the fishing line should contact Bonnie Swarner at bdswarner@hotmail.com

 

Posted 8/24/2017

 
 
 
 

 

 

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