By Doug Fletcher,Staff Writer

Trash by the boatload is being lifted from the depths of the Androscoggin River.

A cleanup of the river – from Gilead on the New Hampshire border to where it dumps into salty Merrymeeting Bay – began Monday.

The effort, the brainchild of Eric Goodwin of Turner, is the first of its kind in Maine to target the entire reach of a river. Goodwin calls it “the largest river garbage cleanup effort in Maine history.”

It’s bringing together scores of volunteers as well as public works departments from cities and towns bordering the river.

Already, Goodwin said Tuesday morning, “a couple of hundred pounds” of trash was hauled to the river’s shore in Livermore Falls. That town’s Betterment Group took honors for being the first to complete a section of the Androscoggin, he said.

Today, two youth groups will join with Goodwin and others to tackle sections of the river as it flows through Lewiston and Auburn. People who want to join in can catch up with the volunteers between 1:30 and 2 p.m. at the boat carry-in launch site off Lincoln Street in Lewiston.

“We can certainly use more volunteers,” Goodwin said, “as well as donors, people who want to sponsor a volunteer or a section of river.”

Goodwin has set a goal of raising about $40,000 to help pay for the cleanup and create a kitty that will help to fund future similar efforts. The nonprofit Communities Getting Involved group that he heads will accept the donations, making contributions tax-exempt.

He created the group several years ago in the hope of bringing people together through projects such as the river cleanup. He has already dredged wastes from Martin Stream and the Nezinscot River in the Buckfield-Turner area on two occasions and taken the project to West Virginia and New Hampshire as well.

Goodwin has a particular fondness for rivers. When he’s not cleaning them, he’s often paddling them, from Maine to New Zealand, where he works as a professional river rafting guide. At least one of Maine’s rafting companies and its guides are helping with the Androscoggin trash removal.

The largest cleanup to date is set to occur Saturday, when volunteers will target two sections of the river in Durham and Lisbon. Between now and the end of summer, Goodwin says the entire 102 miles of the river in Maine will be rid of trash.

People who want to volunteer or make contributions may contact Goodwin at 577-0948.