Today while running errands in Brunswick, I was heartbroken to see piles of dead trees lining the median strip and sides of the road along Route 1.  Did a tornado hit while we were away?  Is the road being widened?  From Cook’s Corner to New Meadows, about 3 miles, complete and utter devastation. Is there some valid reason to cut these trees – some obviously quite old, and all part of a beautifully lush, intricate and unique park-like ecosystem?  Is someone making money on them?  Surely, I’m not the only one who gets the impact of the felling of all these trees.  All the spring and summer nests destroyed. All the birds, mammals and their litters plundered and crushed.

Even if people don’t see trees and forests as habitat first and foremost, what about tourism dollars and autumn leaf-peeping? That simple daily drive is one of the most beautiful and colorful vantage points, literally right in our own back yard, now gone. Greater still, we understand that the simplest, quickest and most cost-effective way to curb or forestall climate change is the planting of trees. So much for those lovely old trees that made that particular drive so pleasant.

Sandy Maggied Aukeman
Georgetown