6 years in and SC still wants you to cut down stinky Bradford pears. Here’s why you should
It’s been six years since Clemson University and the South Carolina Department of Forestry joined to help homeowners get rid of what many consider the biggest nuisance in the tree world — Bradford pears.
Called a bounty program, homeowners can get a native tree to replace as many as five pears. Proof required that they were actually cut down.
Hundreds have met the ultimate fate — including one giveaway earlier in February that saw 95 good trees being given away in return for dead Bradford pears and Chinese tallow trees.
Also, the state has outlawed selling them.
“There are likely more trees cut down than are given out at the events, but the number of trees given away is likely a good estimate,” said David R. Coyle, associate professor at Clemson.
Bradford pears came from China and Vietnam via landscapers in the 1950s who liked their disease resistance and ability to grow anywhere. Their springtime blooms are pretty, too, but sometimes they stink like rotting fish and they have thorns.
Before long, they were everywhere, spreading into forests and choking out native trees.
A Columbia event was held March 14, and the final one for the year is March 28, from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. at Conestee Park, 840 Mauldin Road in Greenville. Any homeowner can attend any event as long as you pre-register.
The progress is: take a selfie of the tree you cut down and bring it to the exchange event.
Forest Health Coordinator David Jenkins and Invasive Species Coordinator Katie Biggert help choose trees from such species as rusty blackhaw, possumhaw, southern red oak, dahoon holly, post oak, American elm, baldcypress, winged elm, sugarberry and black cherry.
Coyle said, “This program is to help get rid of some Bradford pear trees, diversify some municipal canopies, and act as a teaching event, but we will never be rid of Pyrus calleryana on the landscape – it’s far too common for that to happen, barring some new technology or biological control agent.”