Why Hundreds of Volunteers Keep Returning to Pick Up Other People’s Trash. A Small Act That Protects an Entire National Park and the Towns Around It.
acadia national park, news

Why Hundreds of Volunteers Keep Returning to Pick Up Other People’s Trash.

A Small Act That Protects an Entire National Park and the Towns Around It.

Carrie Jones

Apr 27, 2026

Two women in bright yellow safety vests stand smiling on the side of a road, one holding a trash bag and the other a wooden stick, with trees in the background.

The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Restaurant Barn.

A variety of commercial kitchen equipment displayed outdoors against a snowy forest backdrop, featuring a grill, stove, refrigerator, and freezer, with the text 'Restaurant Barn' and a slogan inviting customers to cook.

MOUNT DESERT ISLAND REGION—Even before the sun had burned the chill off the shoulders of Eagle Lake Road, the ditches were already confessing and spilling their small, sorry secrets into giant trash bags: cigarette butts, Fireball nips, cans, bottles, the brittle ghosts of motor-vehicle accidents, and once, to the delighted gasp of strangers who would soon feel like neighbors, a volunteer held up a dime to the morning light as if she had struck oil instead of pocket change, and everyone laughed because the treasure was never the point, not really, not when you could stand on the side of a Maine road with people who keep showing up year after year to gather what the rest of the world forgets.

Each spring, volunteers, organized by Friends of Acadia, head to the roads of the region with one goal: They want to make help make their communities and the park better.

They do that by bagging up litter. Together.

“We had such an incredible day to bring people together to help clean up our community. Thanks to the tremendous turnout of volunteers, we collected 514 bags of trash from around the area,” said Brian Sale, Friends of Acadia’s new stewardship manager.

That’s right.

Those nips, cans, bottles, cigarette butts, plastic pieces, and all sorts of other litter ended up in 514 bags of trash, all picked up by approximately 250 volunteers Saturday morning as those volunteers scoured the roadways and embankments and breakdown lanes of the major thoroughfares of Mount Desert Island and Trenton.

The annual cleanup event demonstrates strong community dedication. Some people have returned year after year.

The event also highlights the connection between local areas and Acadia National Park. This is the 25th year that Friends of Acadia has run the roadside, Earth-Day-adjacent cleanup, a quarter of a century of helping.

“I am in awe of the volunteers who come back year after year to help remove trash from the state roads in our region,” said Stephanie Clement, vice president of conservation at Friends of Acadia.

Three children participating in a cleanup activity, wearing bright vests and holding garbage bags, standing on a gravel path surrounded by trees.
A young boy wearing a bright yellow safety vest and a green hoodie is picking up litter along a roadside in a forested area, with fallen leaves and bare trees in the background.
Two people wearing yellow safety vests collecting trash by a shoreline. One person is smiling while holding a trash bag, and the other is preparing to pick up more waste.

The trash they find is mostly just trash and not any special treasure. Bits of paper. Bits or bigger pieces of plastic. Remnants from motor vehicle accidents. A license plate by a boulder. Cans. Bottles. There are common items like cigarette butts, nips of alcohol—Fireball is especially prevalent. Unique finds have included animal skulls, old glass bottles, stuffed toys wet from rain and snow, and even underwear.

“I found money!” one Witham Family Hotel volunteer told her group, Saturday.

There were happy gasps.

“A dime!” She laughed. “I found a whole dime.”

Big money, they teased.

Last year someone found a very dirty $20 bill and donated it back to the nonprofit.

The cleanup sites are on state roads and the MaineDOT provides the pick-up of the trash for free and disposes of it.

The volunteers take sections on Eagle Lake Road, roads in Hall Quarry, Hulls Cove, Northeast Harbor, Otter Creek, Salsbury Cove, Somesville, Southwest Harbor, Town Hill, or in Trenton.

An elderly woman wearing a bright yellow safety vest and a baseball cap is picking up trash with a grabber tool and placing it into a black garbage bag during a community cleanup event.
A person walking along a rocky beach, carrying a black object and wearing a backpack with a bright yellow jacket draped over it.
A group of volunteers participating in a cleanup event, wearing bright yellow vests. One volunteer, wearing a black hoodie and gray beanie, is focused on using a trash picker in a wooded area, while another volunteer is seen in the background collecting litter.

What occurs to FOA’s Vice President of Communications and Marketing Perrin Doniger during the event is how interconnected our community is with the park.

“We’re here to preserve and protect the park and the communities around it, that’s our mission,” Perrin previously said.

When people are out on the road, picking up trash, they’re seeing the watersheds that are going right into Acadia, where that trash goes if it’s not taken care of.

“So it’s a really wonderful event in that way where you’re cleaning up the community, but also you’re cleaning up Acadia, because of, you know, where that trash would, would go if we didn’t do it?” Doniger said last year.

A black trash bag on the ground with a wooden stick, while individuals in high-visibility vests are seen in the background participating in a cleanup activity outdoors.
Three individuals participating in a community cleanup, wearing bright safety vests, collecting trash along a roadside on a sunny day.
A young girl wearing a bright yellow safety vest and colorful long sleeve shirt is picking up debris on a beach, using a stick and surrounded by rocks and seaweed.

This year, Friends of Acadia hosted a thank you gathering at the Annex at Side Street in Bar Harbor, celebrating a quarter of a century worth of cleanup action and care.

Volunteers showed photo captures of big finds, including the truck cap Pancho Cole found down an embankment by Duck Brook.

He didn’t drag that up to the road, but he’ll be informing Acadia National Park about its location.

Takoda Dionne, live looping singer-songwriter based in Bar Harbor, serenaded the crowd with his exceptional talents.

A young male singer with curly hair performing into a microphone, wearing a patterned shirt, with a green-lit background.
A young male musician performing live on stage with an acoustic guitar, wearing a checkered shirt and red sneakers, in front of a banner featuring his name and QR code.
A bustling bar scene featuring a female bartender interacting with customers while another staff member stands in the background, with patrons enjoying drinks and food at the counter.

Every year, the MaineDOT spends approximately half a million dollars removing litter from the interstates. The “Maine Litter Control Act,” from 1971 is meant to decrease littering statewide via initial fines between $100 and $500 for litter weighing less than 15 pounds (or 27 cubic feet). Towns can also create ordinances about litter.

The 1978 “Bottle Bill” and program in the state is meant to incentivize people in Maine to recycle bottles and therefore reduce litter.

But it still happens.

“We are grateful for their efforts and for the partnership with the Maine Department of Transportation in removing the collected trash. The efforts over the last 25 years have inspired other communities to do their own cleanups and have made a lasting impact for the environment,” Clement said.

Three children wearing fluorescent safety vests smile and walk along a roadside, holding trash bags during a cleanup activity.
Two individuals wearing bright safety vests are working outdoors, one is pruning bushes while the other observes nearby on a path.
A young boy wearing a blue shirt and a safety vest smiles as he carries a trash bag, surrounded by two adults also wearing safety vests, during a cleanup activity outdoors.

The cleanups aren’t isolated to the Friends of Acadia event.

Last weekend Southwest Harbor residents Kalie Hess and Melanie (“Mel”) Lisy, who are running for Select Board organized a cleanup along Seal Cove Road to the transfer station on Long Pond Road. There, twelve volunteers collected 242 pounds of trash on the one-mile stretch.

“For us, this is what community leadership looks like: showing up, taking care of shared spaces, and working together to make our town better,” Hess and Lisy shared in the event flyer.

Next weekend Camp Beech Cliff hosts a cleanup at its location between 9 and noon.

Most mornings in Bar Harbor proper, a group of women walking singularly pick up the litter they see during their early strolls, long before others wake, sometimes—depending on the season—before the sun has even risen.

Community leadership, the Earth Day event and so many other quieter moments show, isn’t just about official leaders; it’s about the people who show up with little fanfare and do good year after year for their community, for the Earth, for Acadia National Park, and for each other.

Two volunteers smiling and posing together while wearing bright yellow safety vests near a roadside, with a third person in the background also participating in a cleanup effort.
A group of volunteers wearing bright yellow vests collects trash along a roadside in a forested area.
Two women wearing reflective vests are picking up litter in a natural setting, with trees in the background.

This year’s event sponsors included:

Lead Event Sponsor:

Chilton Trust.

Event Business Sponsors:

Acadia Bike/Coastal Kayaking Tours, Acadia Corporation, Bar Harbor Bank & Trust, Bar Harbor Savings & Loan, Bar Harbor Whale Watch Company, Beal’s Lobster Pier, Burdick & Associates Landscape Design, Galyn’s Restaurant, Geddy’s Pub, Hannaford Supermarkets, John Williams Boat Company, Jordan Pond House/ExplorUS, Maine Department of Transportation (MDOT), Maine Coast Flight Center, MDI Grows Landscape Services, Mount Desert Island Hospital, Nor’Easter Pound & Market, Orono Brewing Company, Saltair Inn Waterfront B&B, The Bluenose Inn – Lafayette Hotels, William Blair & Company, Window Panes, Witham Family Hotels, and Wright-Ryan Builders.

LINKS TO LEARN MORE

A woman and a young boy wearing reflective vests are holding a black garbage bag while a man in the background observes. They are engaged in a litter cleanup activity in a wooded area.

Drop-in Stewardship Volunteer Program usually starts in June and runs every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday through the end of October: https://friendsofacadia.org/get-involved/volunteer/stewardship-volunteers/

More about Friends of Acadia

More about the Chilton Trust

All photos: Carrie Jones and Shaun Farrar/Bar Harbor Story

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