SALT LAKE CITY — Utah is known for having the most snow in the world.
But we also have some of the best fishing spots.
Jared Winkler is involved in both of those worlds.
Winkler’s full-time gig is at Brighton Ski Resort and he is an avid snowboarder.
But his other passion was fishing and he found a way to pursue that while keeping our streams, rivers and reservoirs free of trash.
That’s through a nonprofit he started called “Fish For Garbage” and they have a contest going on right now to try and get more people involved in their work.
“What we do is, we rally other volunteers to come together and pick up trash around lakes and rivers,” Winkler explained.
He said the Utah fishing community is pretty tight-knit and their passion project quickly gained momentum. With the growing movement, Winkler turned her passion project into an official nonprofit.
“Making it to where we can do a little bit more grant writing to help pay for supplies. I mean, garbage bags, trash grabbers, all that stuff costs money,” he reflected. “So as we grow, we have more needs.”
To keep it growing and attract more people to their cause, Fish for Garbage runs monthly contests where people can win prizes for cleaning up trash.
“What we encourage is, when you go out, as you walk down the river or the bank back to your car, just use your net and fill your net…Fill your net full of trash,” WInkler added. “Take a picture of the fish you caught, and maybe just show a picture of the trash you caught.”
Then, post it on Instagram using the hashtag; fill the net or fish for trash and you’re automatically entered to win. June’s prize is a pizza oven.
“How beautiful our prizes are! It’s a big prize, the thing is over 500 bucks and you can have a nice big barbecue with your family and make all their own pizzas.”
Ultimately, Winkler hopes the awards are a way to get more people involved in keeping Utah’s world-class fisheries clean, now and for generations to come, along with his two daughters.
“It was very difficult to raise my little girls in an environment of; ‘Hey, we got to the river, we’re having fun, we’re cleaning up’ and they enjoy it, that’s all we do.”
The drawing for that pizza oven is Monday, June 17th and technically, you don’t have to be an angler to enter for the prize.
Jared said even if you just go for a hike this weekend and pick up trash by the creek, take a picture, put it on Instagram with the hashtag, Fill a net or fish for trash and you’re in.
Fish for Trash also holds several large events each spring and summer, where volunteers are needed.
