Laura Kiesel dreads the approach of spring.
The founder of Save Arlington Wildlife says she fears the return of fishing line waste littering Arlington parks and injuring and killing wildlife. She says she gets reports of animals, mostly birds, entangled at least weekly or biweekly outside of winter.
The town’s efforts to combat this problem are doing little to prevent birds from getting fatally injured, Kiesel said. Last October, she said, it took two hours for town workers to rescue a screech owl, shown in the main photo, badly entangled in a tree at Spy Pond.
Many of the animals are almost impossible to save and usually die without medical intervention.
Wildlife rehabilitators who can help injured birds are few and far between. According to the wildlife rehabilitator directory on the MassWildlife website, there are none who take in birds in Arlington.
The Arlington Department of Recreation will install fishing line waste receptacles at all waterbodies that are under the jurisdiction of the Parks and Recreation Commission this spring, according to a memo from Natasha Waden, director of recreation and community services.
“Fishing line waste will be regularly collected, sorted, packaged and periodically sent out to Boat US Foundation’s Reel & Recycle,” Waden wrote in a statement to Your Arlington. She said she was too busy to speak with a reporter this week.
Save Arlington Wildlife and some residents proposed a temporary ban on fishing at Menotomy Rocks Park last year, but the commission rejected it. Instead, the commission decided it would be better to focus on education, the installation of fishing line waste receptacles, tree trimming, and partnering with local fishing organizations and business, Waden’s memo said. The commission also plans to form a new group to work on the problem this year.
Kiesel said she was sad that the town did not pause fishing and has seen little improvement in the past year after the commission installed receptacles.
“Every week I was out there at Spy Pond cleaning up yards and yards of fishing line,” Kiesel said.
Fishing lines get caught in the trees when anglers cast their lines too high. Lines are caught up in trees, bushes, fencing and on the ground just 20 to 30 feet away from the receptacles, Kiesel said. Many of these receptacles had been knocked down and were spilling their contents onto the ground, she said.
“We continued to get animals reported to us on a weekly to biweekly basis throughout the whole time these receptacles were up,” Kiesel said.
Christopher Wilson, a Tufts University administrator and angler from Arlington, said he goes to various parks in Arlington and collects discarded fishing line.
“I’m not being paid for any of this,” Wilson said. “I just do it because it’s the right thing to do.”
Retrieving lines requires special gear and takes a lot of work, Wilson said.
“I can get most of the stuff I see in an hour and a half, but I’ll come back a couple months later, and it’s covered again,” he said.
Wilson said he believes that a fishing pause is a good plan.
“The idea is you have a pause to allow the fish population and the bird population in that area to recover a little bit, to improve the health of the ecosystem there,” Wilson said.
Jim Lagacy, an angler education coordinator for Mass Wildlife, said he supports fishing but also supports a temporary pause if the resource is being abused.
“We want all waters open,” Lagacy said. “I think it’s a wonderful way to engage in nature, but when people abuse it, then there has to be recourse to any action, especially when it causes harm to wildlife.”
Because fishing lines are made of plastic, they don’t break up easily.
“It just doesn’t break,” Lagacy said, “and the birds get tangled in it, and they end up dying.”
Kiesel said cleaning up fishing lines and seeing the impact on entangled birds takes a toll.
“It’s very, very traumatic to rescue these birds or to know that they’re dying,” Kiesel said. “It’s very upsetting for many of us.”
This story, published on March 7, 2026, is part of a partnership between Your Arlington and the Boston University Department of Journalism.