Three years after Northeast Portland residents teamed up for an Earth-Day litter bust on Martin Luther King Boulevard, it seems like something's going right.

Simply put: there's way, way less trash on the streets lately.

"We've gone from 300 volunteers four years ago to 85 this year because we don't have enough work to engage them all," said Gary Marschke of the North Northeast Business Associaton. "That's a great situation to be in."

 After three years as the organizer of the Spiffin' Up MLK Boulevard event, Marschke, owner of Northeast Portland consultancy RPM Associates, handed off duties last weekend to Imani Muhammad, community initiatives coordinator for the Northeast Coalition of Neighborhoods.

Marschke said the Spiffin' Up event, a joint project of the business association, coalition of neighborhoods and anti-litter group SOLV, will take place again next year on the Saturday before Earth Day.

Lots more events are planned in N/NE for Earth Day, the April 22 holiday first organized 40 years ago by Portland-area native Denis Hayes. See the list below for more, or add your own by visiting http://www.portlandsentinel.com/calendar and clicking "post your own news and events" in the upper right.

Last Saturday's Spiffin' Up event was supported by donations from Safeway, Old Town Pizza, Sparky's Pizza, For the Grill of It, the Portland Trailblazers and Elevated Coffee. After the work was through, Curious Comedy Theater hosted the volunteers for lunchtime entertainment.

And there was, despite the recent improvements on MLK, still plenty of work to be done.

"We don't have an exact count yet, but my estimate is that we picked up about 72 bazillion cigarette butts," Marschke said.

Arbor Lodge:

Saturday, April 24, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., book donations accepted at New Seasons Market for Children's Book Bank, 6400 N. Interstate Ave. Free.

http://childrensbookbank.wordpress.com/earth-day-childrens-book-drive/ 

Concordia:

Thursday, April 22, 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., urban foraging class at N.E. 23rd Avenue and Alberta Street. "See, touch, taste, smell and even smoke a variety of new plant friends." $13 in advance, $15 in person. 

http://firstways.com/2010/04/15/more-urban-foraging-101-walks/ 

Saturday, April 24, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., book donations accepted at New Seasons Market for Children's Book Bank, 5320 N.E. 33rd Ave. Free.

http://childrensbookbank.wordpress.com/earth-day-childrens-book-drive/ 

East Columbia:

Saturday, April 24, 9 a.m. to noon, native planting and woodchip spreading at Children's Arboretum, 10040 N.E. 6th Ave. Call Dick Towle, 503-283-7925. Free.

http://ecna07.blogspot.com/2010/04/celebrate-earth-day-at-childrens.html.

Eliot:

Thursday, April 22, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., clothing swap and reuse modification workshop at SCRAP, 2915 NE MLK Jr. Blvd. Tools, materials and expertise provided to repair and embellish swapped clothing. Free.

http://scrapaction.org/ 

Overlook:

Saturday, April 24, 10 a.m. to noon, neighbrhood cleanup at Pittman Addition Hydro Park, N. Concord Ave. and Going Court. Free; bring leather gloves, sturdy shoes and a smile. Call Alan Cranna, 503-285-7944.

http://www.portlandonline.com/water/index.cfm?event_id=46429&cal=DisplayEvent&c=30155&modefrom=month&month=4&year=2010 

St. Johns:

Thursday, April 22, 2 p.m. to 7 p.m., Earth Day extravaganza at St. John's Community Center, 8427 N Central St. Free; first 500 attendees get free soda from Burgerville Nomad. Call Brooke Berglund, 503-944-7532.

http://www.portlandsentinel.com/node/6076 

Saturday, April 24, all day, St. Johns Community Cleanup at Red Seach Church, 7535 N. Chicago Ave. Free. E-mail darlene@stjohnspdx.org.