Feds take woman’s lemon tree

Waukesha, Wisconsin - A Wisconsin woman says she’s more than a little sour now that the U.S. government has forced her to turn over her lemon tree on grounds it could spread disease. Bridget Donovan bought the tree online for $70 nearly three years ago and planted it in the yard of her Waukesha home, where she and her niece nurtured it. It grew and yielded lemons and seemed to be healthy. Then she got a letter from the U.S. Agriculture Department. “Unfortunately, Meyer Lemon Tree (the seller) shipped your tree in violation of multiple quarantine laws enacted to prevent the spread of harmful plant diseases and pests,” the letter stated. She uprooted the tree, with five unripened lemons, and put it in a trash bag, as instructed. A USDA officer met her at the school where she works to pick up the tree. More