PORTLAND – The 20th anniversary of the Maine Island Trail is being recognized through a series of events over the year beginning with the Maine Boatbuilders Show in downtown Portland March 14-16.

MITA members from across the state (and those interested in learning more about MITA) will attend an open house during the show and a party for members at its offices after the show on Friday. Memberships are available at the door.

Twenty years ago this summer, Dave Getchell and a handful of boating enthusiasts from Maine launched the concept of creating a water trail. Working under the guidance and sponsorship of the Island Institute of Rockland, which had just completed a survey of the thousands of wild islands of coastal Maine for the state, they had a vision of a virtual path through the water linking uninhabited islands into a coherent whole – the Maine Island Trail, according to Tom Franklin, director of membership and marketing.

Since then, according to the American Canoe Association, more than 500 water trails have been developed nationwide. The concept of a water trail is now well-known to almost any American who owns a boat. In retrospect, the concept itself of a trail through the water is a Maine innovation in aquatic recreation, according to Franklin.

“The novel founding concept was based on the common-sense Maine proposition that ‘people who care about islands will care for them,’ that a shared love of Maine’s wild islands could be the basis for shared use and stewardship of those islands – without a bureaucracy, fees, written agreements and restrictive rules. Today the Maine Island Trail Association has more than 3,500 members, cares for more than 160 islands along the entire coast, and hosts thousands of recreational visitors every season,” Franklin said.

Some MITA members are intensely committed volunteers as well, Franklin said. “A fundamental cornerstone of the trail is stewardship. The organization coordinates several interconnected efforts that rely almost exclusively on volunteers. It has 30 Monitor Skippers who ply trail waters daily over the summer in MITA’s five ubiquitous red Lund skiffs.

“In addition, 106 Island Adopters manage smaller numbers of local islands in their own watercraft. Finally, volunteers participate in more than a dozen island cleanups along the trail each year to ensure that each island is free of debris every spring and fall.”

Volunteers in 2007 removed 258 bags of trash from 95 islands as well as numerous large items including abandoned fishing gear, Styrofoam dock floats and some 150 tires – the bulk of which was sea-borne litter that drifted in with the tides.

Speaking of the model that MITA has provided nationally, Franklin said the trail “is fundamentally Maine. Members gain detailed information about all properties on the trail in exchange for their commitment to treat the islands well and to Leave No Trace. The islands themselves receive the attention and adoration of a caring constituency of people who love the wild coast of Maine. In the context of one of the state’s greatest assets – its thousands of coastal islands – the Maine Island Trail Association reflects a spirit of recreational access to the coast, concern for the land, trust, volunteerism, and being good neighbors.”

The Maine Island Trail not only will be celebrated at the show in Portland but also in Paddlesport 2008 in March in New Jersey, the Woodenboat Show in June in Connecticut, the Boothbay Boat Builders Show in August, and the Maine Boats, Homes & Harbors Show in Rockland in August. Corporate sponsors of MITA’s 20th anniversary are Bangor Savings Bank and L. L. Bean.

More information about MITA, including how to join and how to volunteer, is available at www.mita.org or by calling 761-8225.