EDITOR,
Invasive plants cost taxpayers, homeowners and developers real money. It's not just about birds, bugs and bunnies or biodiversity and sustainability. One reason yellow flag iris and Japanese knotweed were introduced was to reduce erosion by stabilizing ditches and creek banks. It works; however, these plants are exceptional colonizers and rapidly overrun wetlands, ditches and creeks - for an example, check out the knotweed-filled ditch east of the Brew Pub. Choked waterways result in flooding, and, guess what, the municipality then has to remove the plants and our taxes go up. Invasive plants reduce property values - in some progressive jurisdictions invasive infestations must be registered on land title warning prospective property buyers. Invasive plants increase development costs because it's expensive to remediate infested land - in Great Britain Japanese knotweed is an estimated $2 billion problem. Invasive plants are bad news for nature and for taxpayers, too. Truly, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Meg FellowesBrackendale
