rpayerchin@MorningJournal.com

LORAIN — Federal officials agreed the Black River is an environmental success story with more chapters to come.

Lorain officials hosted a reception and river tour for local partner groups and officials from the federal National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which contributed $1.69 million for fish habitat restoration in the river. The tour also was an introductory event for the holiday weekend, which features Independence Day celebrations along with Port Fest and the inaugural Black River Kayak-a-thon river race.

Staff from NOAA and the Great Lakes Commission praised the city’s efforts to remove slag piled along the river’s shore and restore a natural flood plain behind Lorain’s steel mill.

Restoring the river’s ecology also will help Lorain’s economy as more people venture onto the Black River to boat, sail, paddle and fish, said John Iliff, regional supervisor for the Great Lakes Restoration Program of NOAA.

“This project absolutely stood out,” Iliff said, as Lorain competed with 60 other projects for limited federal funding.

It was his first trip to Lorain to see the work paid for with federal money.

“The Black River, ecologically it’s sound,” Iliff said. “The Black River itself is beautiful. It has a lot of hidden beauty that’s not visible as you’re just coming through the highway corridors and the bridge corridors. The Kayak-a-thon is going to start to really open people’s eyes to the recreational opportunity the Black River is. I think there’s great potential both ecologically and economically, recreationally for the folks who live here.”

The project likely will become an example that Great Lakes advocates use when talking to Congressional leaders about money for environmental restoration, said Matt Doss, policy director for the Great Lakes Commission in Ann Arbor, Mich.

The Black River is a prime example of remediation to restoration — cleaning up problem areas and replacing the bad items with good ones, Doss said.

“As I went up the river today, it’s beautiful,” Doss said. “You saw kayakers and fishermen and I’ve dozens of pictures of herons and it’s just beautiful. I’m really impressed.”

The day included river tours for local, state and federal officials aboard the Lorain Port Authority boats.

The vessels ventured upriver to rendezvous with researchers from the Midwest Biodiversity Institute, who used electrical current to stun fish in the river, then count them.

As the vessels moored alongside each other, Roger Thoma stole the show as he picked up fish the crew had caught. Lorain Utilities Director Corey Timko, who spoke at the reception, spoke of his experience studying with Thoma and credited his vision for inspiring efforts toward Lorain’s Black River restoration.

The catch included largemouth bass, bluegill, pumpkinseed sunfish, rock bass, freshwater drum, golden shiner, bluntnose minnow, gizzard shad and channel catfish. He explained to the passengers each species, including why they are important in the environment and how they taste when cooked. The crowd chuckled as several fish flopped out of Thoma’s hand and into the holding tank.

The restoration project includes piled stones called “fish shelves” design to create habitat where plant will grow and fish will rest, eat and spawn.

The Black River already has plants growing along shore but needs more vegetation in the water to improve the river’s ecological health, Thoma said. The minnows like vegetated areas and other fish, such as the bluegill and largemouth bass, go there to feed, he said.

“Again, we’re back to that issue of vegetation and getting that vegetation going up here in the Black River so that the fish will follow,” Thoma said. “There’s a lot more to vegetation than just the fish.”

The Black River looked cloudy and green because algae was growing on nutrients in the river, Thoma said.

“If we had enough vegetation in the river, the vegetation would suck up those nutrients and the algae wouldn’t grow as abundantly and then the water would be clearer,” Thoma said.

The river trip concluded with a view of three bald eagles soaring in circles over the shore. The birds were distant, but their white tales clearly were visible when the sun shone on them.

“It looks beautiful, it looks great,” said Vickie Thoma, a Lorain native and wife of Roger Thoma. “How majestic. What a great day.”