Saxonburg opts to trim invasive trees rather than cut
SAXONBURG — After a month of deliberation, the borough council voted Tuesday night, March 19 to trim some trees along Main Street that are part of an invasive species.
The borough opted to trim the Callery pear trees rather than have them cut down, which was the other option presented at last month’s council meeting.
In making the motion to have the trees trimmed, council member Brian Antoszyk attached a stipulation that the borough hire a certified arborist to do the job.
“We’re not trying to kill the trees, and I think an arborist is going to do a better trim job than just having anybody do it,” Antoszyk said.
However, the council ultimately decided to have the job done by Saxonburg’s own field crew.
Before the decision on the trees, Nelson Milano of the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania offered some suggestions for how to replace the trees. In particular, he suggested the redbud tree, riparian tree, and witch-hazel shrub, none of which are fruit-bearing.
Milano also offered to assist the borough in applying for a Rivers Conservation, Community and Watershed Forestry Grant from Pennsylvania’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, which would fund the planting of the new trees along Main Street.
The minimum award for this grant is $50,000, which Milano says would likely exceed the cost of replacing trees, so he suggested including other projects within the grant proposal.
“You can do some work on the trees in your park,” Milano said. “You could survey all the trees in Saxonburg and look for ones that maybe need to be replaced.”
The species of tree which had been planted on Main Street is officially dubbed Pyrus calleryana, and is known as the Callery pear or the Bradford pear. In December 2021, Pennsylvania added the species to its list of noxious weeds, and as of 2024, plant merchants are no longer allowed to offer the species for sale in the state.
“They rapidly spread and can hybridize with any other pear species,” Milano said. “And then they get thorny and they can take over fields really quick. So if you drive it on, you know Route 28 you'll see them already flowering on the highway. Those are all escaped species, because they definitely weren’t planted in those areas.”
Before the public caught on to its invasive properties, the species was a popular choice for beautifying homes and streets.
