SOUTH PORTLAND – April showers and cold temperatures didn’t deter volunteers from cleaning up beloved neighborhood open spaces Saturday.

Nearly 75 people turned out for the 2011 Earth Day Cleanup sponsored by the South Portland Land Trust, program manager Jon Dore said. The cleanup, now in its 12th year, drew a smaller crowd Saturday because of the weather. As many as 300 people have turned out in past years to spruce up Mill Creek Park, Clarks Pond, Hinckley Park, Willard Beach and Bug Light Park, as well as neighborhoods in the area.

The low turnout didn’t discourage Dore though.

“Even three people can do an awful lot in an hour,” he said.

Just half an hour into the cleanup, six employees of the Saco & Biddeford Savings Bank’s South Portland branch were filling trash bags with litter that had been scattered around Mill Creek Park.

Wearing purple gloves and yellow T-shirts, the group was having fun despite the weather.

“We try and give back to the community in so many ways,” not just by monetary donations, Ginger Grantham said.

Her co-worker Courtney Simpson said Earth Day is something easily forgotten after high school. As an adult, she said she gets wrapped up in work and taking a day to clean up near her office is an important reminder to care for her natural surroundings.

People across the state celebrated Earth Day on Friday. The Portland cultural organization called MENSK sponsored an event in Monument Square that hosted nearly 30 organizations and drew large crowds during lunch hour. Other organizations led hikes, screened films or held concerts.

A number of cleanups were scheduled in the Greater Portland area Saturday.

A small group gathered to ready the Scarborough Marsh Audubon Center for upcoming programs, said Linda Woodard, the center’s manager. Most of the cleanup planned for this weekend was postponed until 9 a.m. Saturday, April 30, she said.

People interested in cleaning Black Point Road and the Libby River area, the Eastern Trail, Pine Point and Ross roads, Route 1, Seavey’s Landing and Higgins Beach can email smac@maineaudubon.org for more information.

A cleanup led by the Fort Preble Preservation Committee was also scheduled for 9 a.m. Saturday with a rain date of April 30.

Dore said the land trust started the cleanup in 1999 with a grant from the New England Grassroots Environmental Fund.

“I walked the Green Belt and I’d see all sorts of trash after the snow melted,” Dore said.

Starting the cleanup, he said, was one way to “stress to neighborhoods to take care of their neighborhoods.”

The early neighborhood cleanups lead to the development of South Portland’s open space plan, which is currently being updated, Dore said.

That plan and the land trust’s efforts enabled them to pinpoint places to send people for Saturday’s efforts.

The group cleaning up the trail area near Clarks Pond collected a lot of debris, including old tires, Dore said. Another group working in the Barberry Creek area said they found less rubbish than in years past.

“We’re likely talking about a slowdown in the amount that people are dumping,” Dore said. “We’re promoting this stewardship of our neighborhoods and we’re hoping (less trash) is the message getting across.”

Staff Writer Emma Bouthillette can be contacted at 791-6325 or at:

ebouthillette@pressherald.com