On-campus fishing boasts a community of healthy and diverse fish, flourishing with greater numbers in the years to come, Roth said.

On April 15, the DNR stocked 3,000 steelhead trout into the river, and Damen Kurzer, fisheries and wildlife junior and chair of the Fisheries and Wildlife Club, anticipates half of the fish surviving and returning from their two to three year maturation journey to Lake Michigan.

Kurzer has fished the river’s campus portion, catching small mouth bass, sunfish and a 20-inch channel catfish. He said he has not caught a stray steelhead, but is looking forward to it.

On-campus fishing was reinstated after a decision by university trustees this January. Prior to this, the campus area had not been legally fished since the 1960s.

The decision opens fishing on the north bank of the Red Cedar River that runs between the western edge of Brody Complex Neighborhood and the bridge by IM Sports-Circle.

Ruth Kline-Robach, outreach specialist for the MSU Institute of Water Research, hopes the decision will bring students out to the river to see its value and become more interested in protecting it.

Roth also said the river’s quality is already relatively high for its urban position.

The river’s health has increased over the last 20 years, Kurzer said, due in part to the biannual river cleanup hosted by the Fisheries and Wildlife Club. Last year’s cleanup produced 20-plus bikes, a mini-fridge and a bong, among many smaller pieces of garbage.

Kline-Robach said human and animal waste can wash into the river after a rainfall, causing a bacteria problem, making the DNR’s guidelines for fish consumption crucial to safe eating.

Roth added the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife has sampled fish by the Administration Building. He said they have found sculpins, darters, minnows, catfish, sunfish, steelhead trout and smallmouth bass, but jokingly no alligators.