What Do Cigarette Butts, a $20 Bill, and Fireball Nips Have in Common? Earth Day on MDI
Nikki Burtis rallies over 200 despite the rain
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by The Witham Family Hotels Charitable Fund.
MOUNT DESERT ISLAND— In the weeks leading up to Friends of Acadia’s annual spring clean-up day, wherever Nikki Burtis drives, she looks for trash.
“I'm usually driving around like looking for where like the trashiest places are so I send the most volunteers there,” Burtis, FOA’s stewardship manager, said.
And in those weeks?
She saw a lot of trash.
But this Monday when she drove around the island there was a different feel to the roadsides. There was a lot less trash. There’s a reason for that.
On Saturday, people went out into the rain and spent their morning in the sometimes-drizzle, sometimes-deluge to make their community a little cleaner.
Burtis could see the difference and that means that there’s a purpose in the annual event she organizes as part of her job at Friends of Acadia. It’s about more than keeping the area pristine though. It’s also about building community.
“The need is definitely there and I think the biggest thing for me is it's very unifying because there's you just see everyone out in their safety vests so they're looking like kind of squad and it's usually like very local folks,” she said.
And they are making a difference at the Earth Day clean-up. They have been for 24 years.
“I like seeing all the trash bags after,” she said of the bags lined up along the major roads in the area waiting to be hauled away, “so I think it's a very gratifying volunteer experience.”
Despite rainy conditions Saturday morning, approximately 206 volunteers picked up enough trash at ten locations on Mount Desert Island and Trenton to fill 372 bags of various sizes, surpassing last year’s haul.
The event demonstrates the strong community dedication. Some people have returned year after year. It also highlights the connection between local areas and Acadia National Park.
Since she’s been doing it the last four years, Burtis has achieved celebrity status.
“People will run into me in the street and they'll ask, ‘Do you know my assignment yet?’” she said. “People are always eager to know their assignment because we usually close registration and then I have a few days to kind of assign everyone to their location.”
That assignment might be at the Eagle Lake Road, Hall Quarry, Hulls Cove, Northeast Harbor, Otter Creek, Salsbury Cove, Somesville, Southwest Harbor, Town Hill, or in Trenton.
“There's definitely a need,” in all those areas, Burtis said.
The trash they find is mostly just trash. Bits of paper. Bits or bigger pieces of plastic. Remnants from motor vehicle accidents. Cans. Bottles. There are common items like cigarette butts, nips of alcohol—Fireball is especially prevalent. Unique finds include animal skulls, old glass bottles, and even underwear.
This year someone found a very dirty $20 bill and donated it back to the nonprofit.
The sites are on state roads and the MaineDOT provides the pick-up of the trash for free and disposes of it.
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,” she said.
When you’re out on the road, picking up trash, you know, you're seeing the watersheds that are going right into Acadia, where that trash goes.
“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.
Doniger said, “We had lots of people participate as individuals and also as teams from local businesses, schools, and community organizations, including Bar Harbor Bank and Trust, Bar Harbor Savings and Loan, Witham Family Hotels/Bar Harbor Inn, Footloose Friends, The Knowles Company, Husson University School of Pharmacy, Acadia Shops, YMCA, Acadia East Campground, The Jackson Laboratory, Oceanarium, UMaine Chi Epsilon, and UMaine Tennis Club.”
Some have been volunteering for years. Some were brand-new like Anne and Roger Reinhold.
“We think Acadia is such a beautiful place,” Anne Reinhold told Friends of Acadia staff. “We want to do our part to keep it that way.”
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.
FOA had multiple 2025 sponsors led by presenting sponsor Chilton Trust to support the volunteers and the event.
The cleanup serves as a kickoff for FOA’s volunteer season. Burtis’ main job is running the stewardship volunteer program in Acadia on the trails and carriage roads.
According to its website, Friends of Acadia, as an organization “draws on the deep well of individual love for this remarkable place to help meet Acadia’s greatest and most pressing needs. Friends of Acadia has resources, nimbleness, and flexibility to accomplish things the park cannot do on its own—not to replace, but to enhance the park’s federal support.”
To do that it gives conservation grants to the park and nearby communities, recruits volunteers, defends “the area against emerging and ongoing threats, like climate change,” it writes and advocates “for Acadia before Congress and the Maine legislature.”
STEWARDSHIP PROGRAMS
The drop-in stewardship volunteer program occurs every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday from June 3 through the end of October.
All ages, all abilities are encouraged to drop by to help with projects that run between 8:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.
“So we're gearing up for that,” Burtis said.
Volunteers park and meet at the Hulls Cove Storage Facility, located near the Hulls Cove Visitor Center, Visitor Center Rd, Bar Harbor, ME 04609.
Another big community volunteer event is Take Pride in Acadia Day, which is set for the first Saturday in November.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
Sponsors of the event included: Acadia Bike/Coastal Kayaking Tours, Acadia Corporation, The Asticou Hotel, Bar Harbor Bank & Trust, Bar Harbor Hospitality Group – A Division of Witham Family Hotels, Bar Harbor Savings & Loan, Bar Harbor Whale Watch Company, Beal’s Lobster Pier, The Bluenose Inn, Burdick & Associates Landscape Design, Fiore Artisan Olive Oils & Vinegars, Galyn’s Restaurant, Hannaford Supermarkets, John Williams Boat Company, Jordan Pond House/ExplorUS, Machias Savings Bank, Maine Department of Transportation (MDOT), MDI Grows Landscape Services, Mount Desert Island Hospital, Orono Brewing Company, Saltair Inn Waterfront B&B, West Bay Acadia RV Campground, Wildland Trekking Company, William Blair & Company, and Window Panes.
Drop-in Stewardship Volunteer Program starts June 3 and runs every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday through the end of October: https://friendsofacadia.org/get-involved/volunteer/stewardship-volunteers/
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