PALMER, Mass. (WWLP) – An Earth Day celebration was held in Palmer Wednesday, getting the community involved in cleaning and appreciating one of the town’s natural resources.

Forest Lake was one stop in MassWildlife’s mission to stock a half a million trout statewide this year. There was an incredible community turn out at the Earth Day Celebration.

First, there was a clean up of the lake. Then, MassWildlife brought 750 brown trout and brook trout from a hatchery in Sunderland to restock the lake. People stood in line to get a bucket containing several trout, then they walked to the water’s edge to toss them loose in the water.

“Forest Lake is a newer purchase for us, so we’ve only had this property for a few years. So we wanted to come out here, use the local community to engage them in starting to take advantage of cleaning up the property, so that’s why we did that clean up… and also to share with the community this great resource that’s available to them,” said Joseph Rodgers, District Manager at MassWildlife.

Rodgers added that theses are catch and keep fish and they are very tasty to eat. After the pond was restocked, there was a free learn to fish event along with gear to use if you didn’t have your own.

The restocking continues across Hampden County this week, MassWildlife will be at Hampton Ponds in Westfield Thursday at 10 a.m. Children are encouraged to join them and learn about trout and places to fish.