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Volunteers, working groups seek better coordination on fishing‑line litter and water‑body issues in Arlington
Summary
Commissioners and volunteers described gaps in communication between a fishing‑line working group and the water‑bodies group, delays contacting MassWildlife for a presentation, and ongoing shoreline cleanups led by local volunteers and the group Save Arlington and Wildlife.
At the June 25 meeting the Arlington Conservation Commission heard that volunteers and multiple working groups are actively responding to fishing‑line debris and shoreline litter but that communication gaps have caused confusion.
Commissioner Susan Chapnik said residents and volunteers repeatedly report fishing line and shore waste to a coordinator (Natasha), but some working‑group members were not aware that the commission had sent a letter to the select board last summer. "I tried to field a lot of misinformation and then connect the people that needed to understand the information," Chapnik said, and she described plans to forward fishing‑group communication to the water‑bodies working group to improve coordination.
Chapnik said an effort to schedule a presentation from MassWildlife (Mass Fish & Game) has been unsuccessful so far; the fishing‑line group hopes to reconvene once the presenter can be scheduled. She credited volunteer efforts on the water — for example, boat‑based volunteers led by Brad Barber — and shoreline cleanups led by Laura Keel and her group Save Arlington and Wildlife, which Chapnik said has documented "tons and tons of line and lures and hooks".
Commissioners discussed whether working‑group meetings are open to the public and whether having a commission liaison attend would create quorum or conflict with open‑meeting rules; staff and commissioners agreed to seek a liaison arrangement that preserves transparency without triggering inadvertent quorum issues. The commission also discussed related water‑body observations (duckweed moving up Monroe Brook toward neighboring Lexington) and recommended bringing issues outside Arlington's boundary to the appropriate town for follow up.
The commission asked David Morgan and the water‑bodies working group to coordinate outreach, clarify meeting status and invite appropriate cross‑attendance to reduce duplication and misinformation.
