Decades ago, when Don A. Griffin began his tireless crusade to protect the polluted Detroit River and its tributaries, a night like Sept. 7, 2006 wouldn’t have seemed possible.

But there was Griffin, along with hundreds of supporters, admirers, family and well-wishers, motoring down the Detroit River as the guest of honor and the recipient of the Michigan Environmental Council’s 2006 Petoskey Prize for Environmental Leadership.

Even more remarkable than the award, given annually to the state’s top grassroots environmental activist, were the slow but steady signs of progress along the once-desolate and pollution-choked banks. Hopeful, tangible signs of that progress slid past as Griffin was toasted by members of the Friends of the Detroit River, which he helped found 15 years ago.

There was General Motors’ new riverfront native plant gardens and the company’s stretch of “soft engineering” that is transforming the concrete shoreline into a friendlier haven for fish and other aquatic organisms.

There was the city’s ever-expanding riverfront promenade walkway—a start toward turning the riverfront from the city’s back door into its front porch.

There was the new Tricentennial State Park and Harbor, Michigan’s first urban state park.

There were recreational boaters, sailors, personal watercraft users and anglers enjoying the river’s world-class walleye fishery and the return of spawning whitefish to the waterway—documented earlier this year after 90 years of absence.

And almost within sight as the boat finally turned for home silhouetted against a rising moon: The Humbug Marsh that Griffin and the Friends helped save from development after a years-long struggle with powerful and moneyed interests. The marsh—the last stretch of wetland along the U.S. shore of the river—is now the centerpiece of a thriving Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge.

Griffin’s tenacious struggle to save the marsh helped keep the Save the Humbug Marsh coalition together during the titanic legal and public relations struggle to keep a golf course and condominiums at bay.

“Don has done great work for the protection of the Detroit River and its habitats,” said David Howell, chairman of the Friends of the Detroit River. “His years of conservation leadership are an inspiration for all of us.”

Joined by his wife, Laurine, Griffin accepted the award from MEC President Lana Pollack at a dockside ceremony where he was praised by testimonials from U.S. Congressman John Dingell (D-Dearborn) among others.

“It is the often unheralded work of passionate citizen activists like Don that makes the difference in protection of natural systems that provide Michigan residents with clean air and water and recreational opportunities,” said Pollack.

And as the setting sun framed the gray skeletons of Downriver steel mills and a nearly-full moon rose above the Windsor skyline, Griffin stayed true to form, urging his friends and colleagues to never give up the fight for a cleaner river and a better future.

“This is important work,” he said softly as the evening drew to a close. “And I’m just glad to have been a part of it.”