Alien invasions can be slowed, stopped
- col-karen-gotter
- November 10, 2023
- 952
Halloween was last week, when we expect to see the bizarre and “otherworldly” walking down the street, with the expectation of candy as a result of their creative imaginations. But the aliens I’m on the lookout for are here all year round, hiding in plain sight, and they’ve integrated so well that many believe they belong here. We only notice when they start disappearing.
For example, the “aliens” that had been entrenched at the offices of the Holmes County Health Department and Job & Family Services for the last 20 years or so were finally discovered for the insidious actors that they are — and I’m sorry to say it took me several weeks to notice they were finally gone.
Of course, I’m referring to the fantastic decision by the Tree Commission of Millersburg to cut down the Callery pear trees and Japanese barberry shrubs that were installed decades ago, when these plants were a favorite for urban landscaping. Both of these plant species are not native to the area, state or even the country but were introduced from China and Japan. And both have earned the title “invasive” because they can quickly colonize areas where they were not planted, even though they were bred to be sterile.
Callery pears and barberry are now listed as one of 63 species of invasive plants that are illegal to “sell, offer for sale, propagate, distribute, import or intentionally cause the dissemination of (Ohio Administrative Code 901:5-30-01).” Millersburg is flooded by these pear trees, and unsurprisingly, most of them were not planted intentionally but sprouted on their own when their fruit got spread through town by birds, wind and removing yard debris.
Urban trees, especially public urban trees, are part of a city’s infrastructure, especially in Tree City USA communities like Millersburg. Like sidewalks, utility lines and parking areas, the community pays to plant and care for the trees in the public areas, so it’s important we plant responsibly, and as we learn certain plants are no longer welcome in our landscaping, it’s important they are removed and replaced appropriately.
Fortunately, the new health department building is already in discussions about their landscaping decisions, and we can be confident no invasive pear trees will be part of their planting plan. We can only hope this trend catches on and the village and businesses will see how important it is to make space for our valuable native species — trees like redbuds, dogwoods, native crabapples and serviceberries make excellent replacements for Callery pears. We’ll have most of these for sale as small saplings during our spring tree sale, but you can look for ornamental grade options at one of our many local nurseries.
Of all the invasive plant species we have to deal with, we are lucky Callery pears present a relatively low hurdle and fairly simple treatments will get them out of our hair — more importantly, out of our forests, where they dominate over native plants that need the same spaces but can’t compete with the fast-growing nature of the pears.
In the spring they are simple to identify, with their bright-white flowering canopy making them easy to target and eradicate. Between March and September, before they have fruit, girdling the trunk is an easy way to begin to kill it with no chemicals and minimal equipment. This would only be safe in areas away from buildings and much human activity. These trees are notorious for being brittle and having very little limb or trunk strength. Even when they are healthy, they can easily break limbs during high wind or heavy snow, which is reason enough to get them off your property.
After the flowers are gone and they have leafed out, simple foliar sprays or spraying the trunks with special “basal bark” chemicals are effective treatments to start killing the tree — again, beforeit can start producing fruit. This will allow you to cut it down completely once the ground is frozen to protect your yard, but you can “stop the spread” by treating them earlier in the year. There is great likelihood stump sprouts may pop up over the next couple years, unless you treat with herbicide or mechanically remove the stump.
Karen Gotter is watershed coordinator for the Holmes Soil & Water Conservation District.