Has the “species purity” movement gotten out of hand, categorizing undesirable plants and animals, even earthworms, as invasive? Next thing you know its adherents will be calling for the elimination of apple trees as an alien species.
About the removal of flowering pear trees from Great Barrington's Main Street, Cindy Caminiti writes: "It is never easy to give up what one has known. But change is life, even if what is changing was beautiful. The broken water lines, pot holes and crashing branches were not."
The bottom line is that Bradford pear trees can become a hazard and as many towns across the U.S. have discovered, these somewhat fad-like cultivars did not make for good street trees, especially if planted en masse.
