BANGOR DAILY NEWS • July 12, 2020
Swept in by the tide, heaps of plastic bottles, styrofoam and broken fishing gear accumulate on Maine’s islands each year. To clean up this mess, the Maine Island Trail Association usually organizes annual trips, filling boats with volunteers armed with trash bags. But this year, COVID-19 put a halt to that program. MITA launched a Call to Oars initiative this spring, inviting all recreational boaters to adopt Maine islands for the season and clean them up. So far, dozens of boaters have answered the call.