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NC Bradford Pear Bounty
— Written By Savannah Jones

Image of a blooming Bradford pear tree with vibrant white blooms covering the tree.
Bradford pear tree in full bloom. Image by Dr. Kelly Oten.

The Bradford pear tree is an ornamental commonly planted tree in North Carolina but did you know it is an invasive species? Sure, it has pretty blossoms, but it also smells of rotten fish, breaks easily during storms, and outcompetes native trees. Bradford pears can also breed with other varieties of pear trees that produce long thorns and spread in natural forests, replacing native trees and creating “food deserts” for birds. These trees are damaging to our natural ecosystems and need to be removed and replaced.

You’ll see their characteristic white blooms in full effect in March or early spring.

We’re teaming up with the NC Forest Service, NC Urban Forest Council, and NC Wildlife Federation to encourage North Carolinians to properly remove and replace these invasive trees.

Close up image of multiple white Bradford pear flowers with pink or brown speckles on the petals.
Image of white Bradford pear blooms. Image by Dr. Kelly Oten.

When you cut down your Bradford pear tree, we’ll give you a native tree to replace it (up to 5 native trees)! You must sign-up and provide proof of removal to attend an NC Bradford Pear Bounty event and receive native trees.

*We are planning events in various locations across NC. Specifc dates and locations can be found on treebountync.com

I am killing one in my yard now. Dam things do make good looking ornamentals, but they are a blight in some instances/scenarios! Can overtake the understory of a forest.

SC and MO are banning their sale as well.

can't buy them around here - although they still sell other variations of blooming ornamental trees

Have 8 of them in the front yard. Big bastards. Smelly as hell the last week or two.

Was just thinking of cutting them down and planting some serviceberry trees.

Will have to look into any SC programs.

Bradford pears, T1-11 siding, 5/4 decks... and Kias.

Damn things will split right down the middle, during a storm, and keep on living.

I had never heard of the things until I bought this house last year.

Looked pretty enough. When I got the house they had already bloomed and didn’t stink. Fast forward to last week when the blooms erupted over night. Started out as a musky sweet smell. Now smells like rotten azz.

Who the fugg ever thought these were a good idea?
I don’t get planting schit that stinks or has a bunch of thorns. Especially if it doesn’t grow some good fruit.

Had a dozen of them in front of our building at work. Nice enough looking, but the branches were so dense, a slight breeze would break them. Many times in half. Happy day when I had every one of those things cut and ground up.


Clyde

They're rotten azz trees. The wood would be nice since it's hard as hell and has nice grain, but by the time it gets any wood on its that's usable, it already has fractures in it. One of the reason they blow apart in storms. I had a huge one in my yard for years and cut it down a few years ago. Damn thing sent up shoots from the leftover roots for a couple of years. Still have firewood from it. It makes good firewood.

I remember back in the ‘70’s when they were always advertised in the magazine section of the Sunday paper, big color ads along with flowers and such.

Be sure to uproot the stumps, or you'll have half a dozen saplings where one tree used to be! Fortunately, the root ball is shallow and not too hard to dig out.

Got 4 of them that are getting cut down. I was going to try to make wine out of the fruit, but now all the trees have a fungal infection that ruins the fruit.

The 2 I am seeing are the Honeysuckle and Olive trees. I can't keep up with them. The most invasive weed I am seeing is the wild parsnip. The parsnip will screw up your world.

kwg

Only reason I keep the one I have is for the bees.

now if we can work on the privet hedge and the kudzu also

You can kill the roots with Tordon. Drill a few holes in the stump and soak it for a few days.

Out west we have one called Wisteria that people plant. The stuff is a really aggressive woody vine that takes over an area such as a big leaf maple grove. It will kill the maples yet they are still allowed to sell it. On the other hand the butterfly bush has been regulated and only allowed to be sold in a seedless variety to keep it from taking over meadows and such.

You know who likes them?

Middle class white women.



Rest my case.

Got rid of mine a few years ago. Lady Bird Johnson promoted them bigly; genuine democrat tree; stinks, rots and falls apart.

Clemson was giving away free native trees at the local park last week, provided you could show a picture of a Bradford you cut down. You can really see how they've spread this time of year when they are in full bloom.

Wisteria is all over the place down here too.

Fruit? Are you kidding?

We got 'em all over the place here in the Blue Ridge Mountains, I drove in to town today and I saw over 300 blooming Bradfords.
Having read some of the complaints on here, I stopped to smell a Bradford Pear. Good Lord does it stink! Smells like rotten fish.
That's weird because the flowers are pretty.

Stupid fuggin City Arborists them and the Hackberry.

Yep, they are blooming everywhere.

Well they are certainly invasive, and break easily in heavy winds, but they also produce a lot of food that wildlife, mostly birds, use leading naturally to their incredible spread from seeds in bird droppings. At this point, cutting down a few here and there probably won’t do much to control them. Fallow farmland around here is chock-full of them. A major hack-n-spray would be needed to clear them out.

I have a huge one in my front yard. It was damaged severely during the derecho we had some years back, but I pruned it up and thinned the canopy and it’s recovered to where the damage is hard to see now. Can’t imagine what it would cost to remove as the trunk is at least 24” in diameter near the base, and it’s over 40’ tall. The neighbors’ trees get hit hard in heavy winds, but this monster hasn’t been damaged since the derecho.

The hackberry is native, but you can blame the USDA, with an assist from Lady Bird Johnson for pushing the Bradford pear.