letter to the editor

Last trip to the Gardens

Mon, 02/20/2017 - 4:30pm

Dear Editor:

I used to enjoy serene meanderings through the natural world of ferns, lady slippers, trillium, mosses, bunch berries, blueberries, and evergreens at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens.

Sadly, the gardens no longer bear much resemblance to the Maine landscape. The place has been overhauled to resemble a Disney World franchise. Many of the plants look semi-tropical, and they all appear to have been force fed huge quantities of growth stimulants. It's a staggering collection of the Arnold Schwarzenegger version of plant species “from-away.”

Now Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens is clear-cutting acres of woods and planning to eliminate eight vernal pools as well as threaten the water quality at Knickerbocker Lake, all in the name of expansion. More oversized everything seems to be on the way, at the expense of the local flora and fauna (which I happen to think are pretty spectacular in their own right). This operation is destroying the very habitat it originally intended to harbor.

It deeply saddens me to see that the Gardens have evolved to this. 

I, and my guests and family, have had our last visit to the pumped-up “show.”

Anne Winchester 

Pemaquid