Annual Dan Birt award named Gardening prize given to namesake

ORONO – The first Dan Birt Award was given on Aug. 19 to 18-year veteran University of Maine Cooperative Extension Master Gardener volunteer Dan Birt, for whom the honor is named.

Gleason Gray, extension educator and director of the Master Gardener Program in Penobscot County, made the presentation to Birt, an East Millinocket resident.

The award will be given annually to an outstanding Penobscot County Master Gardener volunteer who has exhibited outstanding dedication to the project and its aims.

Birt was a member of the first Penobscot County Master Gardener class in 1990 and has been an active participant in the program ever since. Since 1993, he has worked tirelessly on the Penobscot County Demonstration Garden project.

In addition to his garden plot, Birt has constructed several unique items for use at the garden, including a bat house, storage boxes and an ingenious potting bench, which was raffled at an annual Garden Gathering event.

Over the past 18 years, Birt has traveled regularly, most often once a week, from his home in East Millinocket to the Master Gardener Demonstration Gardens at Rogers Farm, 914 Stillwater Ave.

For two years, during the early 1990s, when there were no facilities available for Master Gardener use at Rogers Farm, Birt regularly worked in the gardens in Waldo County.

In addition to his activities in the local gardens, Birt has been active in the Plant A Row For the Hungry project in Millinocket.