Mt. Hood Community College second-year fisheries technology students release rainbow trout into the campus pond. (Courtesy photo: MHCC)

Last month fisheries technology students released more than 4,000 rainbow trout into the pond on the Mt. Hood Community College campus, stocking it for kids looking for an afternoon of fishing.

The release on May 21 is part of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Salmon-Trout Enhancement Program (STEP). Mt. Hood students raise the rainbow trout from egg to legal size in the MHCC hatchery.

The second-year fisheries technology students work every day for nine months, including weekends and holidays, to ensure the fish are fed and cared for.

The pond is open for fishing from April 1 through August 31 for youths 17 and under, as well as anyone with a valid Oregon Disabilities Fishing Permit. That makes the MHCC pond one of the three youth-only fishing venues in the state, with easy access and relative safety (young children should still be accompanied on outings).

The Oregon Legislature created STEP in 1981 to involve volunteers and the community in restoring native stocks of salmon and trout. In the following decades the program has completed stream habitat restorations; conducted surveys; helped with education projects; and hatched and reared several million salmon and trout eggs. Learn more at dfw.state.or.us/fish/step/