To the Editor:
A few weeks ago as I was entering Marion’s Town House, I stopped for a moment and looked at one of the most magnificent sights in Marion: the beautiful oak tree – at least one hundred years old – standing between the Town House and the Elizabeth Taber Library. It was the middle of June, and I couldn’t see a leaf on the tree. A shiver of despair went down my back. This was an incredibly hard year for oak trees, and if we have another year of defoliation from the gypsy moths or winter moths, these mature trees will die. Unfortunately, many other oak and maple trees in the area are suffering the same stress. I am asking the selectmen to place a warrant article before the town at an up-coming fall special town meeting to discuss and fund, if appropriate, aerial spraying throughout the town before next year’s attack. Many of us with silver hair remember the lovely American elm trees lining our streets and the damage done by the Dutch elm disease of the fifties and early sixties. Marion lost these trees. Let’s take action before it happens with our oaks and maples. If nothing is done, many of the mature trees will be gone.
David K. Pierce, Marion
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