Beecher resident Allen Cook was determined to retrieve a plastic water bottle bobbing in a pool of murky water at the Monee Reservoir, but it was beyond his reach.
Undaunted, the 7-year-old and his mother, Sheryl, fished the container out with a tree limb. The raking action also freed an aluminum can underneath the bottle, doubling Allen’s acquisitions during a trash-collecting excursion this month.
His mother bagged the discards as part of the Will County Forest Preserve District’s unique Fishing for Trash environmental-education program at Monee Reservoir.
Unlike typical citizen-participation programs in the Chicago area, Fishing for Trash is relatively unstructured, requires no significant time commitment and offers immediate gratification.
During events, participants obtain garbage bags from Monee Reservoir employees and roam the 268-acre preserve south of Monee, picking up manmade items. They drop off the filled bags at the concession stand and, in return, receive a voucher for a free boat rental for one hour, free night crawlers and a pole, or a free beverage and snack.
Typically, forest district programs in Will County and elsewhere “repay” volunteers with less tangible rewards, such as invitations to recognition dinners. One of the few exceptions is the DuPage County Forest Preserve District’s Danada Equestrian Center, which allows volunteers working a set number of hours to earn discounts toward lessons or trail riding.
The more spur-of-the-moment Fishing for Trash program usually picks up volunteers who come to Monee Reservoir for another event. For instance, the Cooks had gone to the reservoir May 1 for a fishing class when they were asked to help.
Participants in the trash program are asked to gather tangled fishing line, bait containers, old fishing hooks, soda cans, and even lunch bags –– all particularly dangerous to animals, said program coordinator Diane Carson.
How dangerous? Program instructor Angie Opiola recalled seeing a bird in a tree frantically trying to free itself from a fishing line.
The most heartbreaking example is a seagull that Monee Reservoir employees believe lost its feet when they became tangled in fishing line.
Fishing for Trash events are held four times a year in the spring and summer at the Monee Reservoir, near Illinois Highway 50 and Pauling Road, and run for a week. The next one is scheduled to start June 2. In its debut year in 2008, the event was held for one week and attracted 10 participants. More than 70 participated last year when three weeklong events were held.
Tinley Park resident Linda Stepp and her daughter, Michelle Ritchie, 9, also helped search for trash in the same general area as the Cooks, but they focused more on an area a little closer to the 46-acre lake.
They ducked in and out along the shoreline where fishermen were casting for largemouth bass, northern pike, bluegill, channel catfish, and crappie. Stepp reached down for a muck-covered shape, thankful for the disposable gloves reservoir staff provide.
“Isn’t this a great program?” the former Beecher resident said. “It makes it pretty for everybody else.”
Like the other participants, the mother and daughter took a two-hour fishing class and were encouraged by the two teachers to help clean up.
Certainly the number of people visiting Monee Reservoir –– 162,600 in 2009 –– suggests there would be no lack of trash at the preserve.
But Allen Cook’s siblings and cousin, who were there on the same day, realized to their dismay that the ground near the fishing area and concession stand had been picked clean.
“We couldn’t really find a lot of stuff,” said Allen’s sister, Emily, 10, after hunting with their brother Aaron, 12, and cousin Kaylie Callahan, 11, under supervision of her father, Eric.
At the concession stand, Lockport resident Austin Molitor, 7, negotiated with an employee as his mother, Tracy, watched. Elsewhere at the preserve, Austin’s brother, Logan, 9, continued to search for trash with their dad, Daniel.
Austin examined the bag of Skittles and can of Pepsi he got in return for a small garbage bag containing three cigarette butts, half a Styrofoam cooler lid and other trash.
“You could say it was fun,” he said, “but I got bored of walking.”
Ideally, Carson said, the event would “promote our values of environmental awareness, and offer the public a way to practice environmental stewardship.”
That lesson wasn’t lost on Emily Cook, who saw a dead fish during her search. “I thought about the environment and if we don’t help, they could all die,” she said.
