California’s Fishing in the City program has a simple goal: to connect people with the outdoors and spark a love for conservation. Teaching people to fish is simply the bait to get them outside.
“People value and protect things that they know,” says Ethan Rotman, Supervisor for the Regional Interpretive Services Department of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. After decades spent as a wildlife interpreter, he says that establishing an initial connection between urban residents and their local parks and wildlife is crucial. For many urbanites, a visit to a local stream with a fishing clinic will be their first foray into outdoor recreation. Rotman is hoping it won’t be their last.
Fishing in the City
Introduced in 1993, Fishing in the City is a state program that provides a unique opportunity for residents to learn to fish their local streams and ponds. Funded through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Wildlife & Sport Fish Restoration’s (WSFR) Sport Fish Restoration Fund, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife-managed program has enjoyed immense success among urban residents.
Fishing has inherent benefits: studies have demonstrated that fishing helps build resilience and boosts both physical and mental health. But Fishing in the City hopes to do more than simply introduce residents to a new sport. Volunteers and wildlife interpreters hold regular clinics with the aim of getting urban residents out into their local parks and spending time together as a community.
The program continues to adapt to a changing playing field. Noting that people are increasingly turning to online platforms to learn new skills, Rotman hopes to meet them there.
He explained that Fishing in the City started publishing short videos online to teach folks basic fishing skills: how to tie a Palomar knot, fillet a fish, or rig a line. “We’re trying to provide our audiences with the tools they need to not only do the activity with us, but then to do it on their own.”
Continue reading at fws.gov.
