Dear Editor:

Re: Virginia Rickeman’s letter to the editor of March 5 concerning Rt. 27 landscaping:

I come from Texas, where mesquite trees grow like a bad weed over 65 million acres, one-third of the state. Ranchers constantly battle against the invasive, thorny, unattractive mesquite tree … sometimes calling it “the devil with roots.” It spreads like wildfire, and absorbs all the water in its surroundings, causing other plants and trees to wither and die, making room for more mesquites. Nobody likes mesquite trees … except goats. And they will eat anything, thorns and all.

Please, I beg the landscape committee to reconsider planting mesquite trees in the town of Boothbay. They will take over, and we will begin to look like Texas, not New England.

Helen Meserve

Newagen