Tangle Free Waters (TFW) is a program to reduce, remove and recycle fishing line from Eastern Sierra waterways. The idea for this program was created by members of the Range of Light Group and passed on to Matt Paruolo of Mammoth Lakes Recreation for implementation. Matt obtained a grant from the Mono County Wildlife Commission which covers the building, installation and signage for Fishing Line Recycling Tubes (FLRTS) at fishing hot spots and has been busy building and installing FLRTS. But a key element of the program will be to sign up volunteers to adopt and/or maintain them. If interested, please go to https://mammothlakesrecreation.org/tangle-free-waters-2/

This is an excellent start, but ROLG believes the next step would be to expand the program to include Inyo County, add an educational element, and to encourage active participation by the local fishing industry. Enter the Eastern Sierra Sustainable Recreation Partnership (ESSRP). Their job is to help figure out how to allocate $618,750 worth of prop 68 funds to be used for sustainable recreation in Mono and Inyo Counties. They’ve been asking local community members and stakeholders to brainstorm ideas for a better, more sustainable recreation experience and to submit their ideas for evaluation. Which, of course, we did. The first batch of 50 ideas were evaluated on September 17th and the scores were released. The highest score was given to PLOP - People Love Our Potties at 23.81(weighted average) which I think we all can agree is a high priority. TFW came in at a respectable sixth on the list at 21.56. The second batch of ideas will be evaluated on November 19 and out of the all submissions the top 12 will go on to the next round and a final 8 will be chosen to be funded. As you can see, there is a lot of competition and a long way to go, but I am delighted and encouraged by the positive response so far. To submit an idea or register to evaluate submissions go to https://www.essrp.org/ gateway-community-projects. Submissions can be made until November 19 when the final evaluation will occur. 

For more information about TFW see our webpage or go to https://mammothlakesrecreation.org/tangle-free-waters-2/