Roadside trash. It's ugly and sometimes bad for the environment.

My former boss here at the newspaper, Mary Brewer, thankfully wrote about it back in February, ending with "There's nothing appealing about roadside litter. Nothing."

Well, this week, I want to commend a few groups who have, or will be, cleaning up the roadsides.

Southport residents gather annually for hot dogs and other goodies before heading out to clean up the trash along the main roads around the island. They did that this past Sunday and we are sure the island is more appealing than it was on Saturday. Thank you.

This Saturday, May 7, the Boothbay Region Lions Club is planning to pick up the trash along Country Club Road in Boothbay. The road leading to the region's "trash center" is usually littered with paper, cans and other garbage that has either flown out of the back of trucks or purposely thrown out the window of a car. Thank you, Lions.

And a growing group of Rockport residents, participating in the "Keep Rockport Beautiful" campaign, took two days in late April to clean up their streets. According to an article in our sister online paper, the Pen Bay Pilot, the organizer of that campaign said over 100 people took part in a spring and fall clean-up detail in 2015 and collected over 2,000 pounds of trash. Wow. That's a lot of unsightly garbage.

These groups' efforts remind me of the time when Joan Rittall and others organized May clean-up days back in the '70s and '80s. A weekend day was chosen and citizens, scout groups, social groups and others would turn out to pick up certain areas of Boothbay and Boothbay Harbor.

Hopefully, this local effort will be revived and spearheaded by some person or group in the near future. Joan and many of her friends that did this "beautification" of the region are in their 80s now, so it will take a younger leader to get something like this started again. Perhaps the town fathers of both communities could spring a little cash for a cookout or picnic at the Common and/or Barrett's Park for the participants.