Dear Editor:

Joni Mitchell said it best in 1970.

“They took all the trees and put ’em in a tree museum (or educational center?). And then they charged the people a dollar-and-a-half  ($16 in 2017) just to see ’em.”

“Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone. They’ve paved paradise and put up a parking lot.”

In 1970, who would have guessed that this would happen in our community?

Who would have guessed then that the paving would have been accomplished by a botanical garden, not a strip mall or an amusement park, but a botanical garden?

How very sad.

Cathlene C. Parkhurst

Boothbay