Bradford Pear Trees: Why Missourians Are Removing Them

If you have a Bradford pear in your yard, you’re not alone — for two decades they were one of the most-planted street and ornamental trees in Missouri. They flower early, grow fast, hold their shape, and don’t mind clay soil. Builders loved them. Homeowners loved them. The problem is, the tree itself has turned out to be one of the most damaging invasive species in the Midwest, and Missouri has officially taken notice.

What Changed in Missouri

Callery pear — the species name that covers Bradford and its many cultivars — was added to the Missouri Invasive Plant Council’s priority invasive species list. While Missouri hasn’t banned the sale of Callery pears outright the way several other states have, the state and the Missouri Department of Conservation are actively encouraging homeowners to remove existing trees and not plant new ones.

Several Missouri municipalities and conservation programs have even offered "buyback" or replacement programs where homeowners who remove a Callery pear get a free native tree in return. Programs come and go, so it’s worth a quick check with the Missouri Department of Conservation each spring.

Why They’re a Problem

Bradford pears were originally bred to be sterile, but cross-pollination with other Callery pear cultivars has produced billions of viable fruits over the years. Birds eat the fruit, fly off, and deposit seeds in fence rows, pastures, and woodland edges across Southwest Missouri. The resulting wild Callery pears:

• Out-compete native dogwoods, redbuds, plums, and serviceberries
• Grow back from cut stumps repeatedly and aggressively
• Develop long thorns when wild — making them brutal for livestock, dogs, and anyone trying to clear them
• Crowd out the spring-flowering natives that pollinators actually need

And They’re Structurally Bad Trees

Even setting aside the invasive issue, Bradford pears are notoriously bad-structured trees. Look at one in any Joplin neighborhood and you’ll see the same pattern: a tight cluster of co-dominant limbs all coming out of the trunk at roughly the same point. That pattern produces included bark — bark that gets pinched between the trunks as they grow, creating a built-in failure plane.

Most Bradford pears split themselves apart in a wind or ice event by year 20. We pull pieces of failed Bradford pears off of roofs, fences, and cars in the Joplin area every storm season. It’s not a question of if — it’s a question of when.

Should You Remove Yours?

Honestly, yes — eventually, and ideally before it self-destructs. The right time to remove a Bradford pear is:

• Before it’s over a target (your roof, the neighbor’s fence, a car)
• Before it splits in a wind event
• While you can still control the timing and the cleanup

If your Bradford pear is small, has good structure, and is far from anything important, you can leave it until you’re ready. But every year you wait, the value of removing it pre-emptively goes up.

How We Handle Bradford Pear Removal

Bradford pears are usually fast and reasonably affordable to remove because they’re typically not that tall, don’t have heavy wood, and rarely involve crane work. Two things to know:

• The stump will sprout. Bradford pear is an aggressive root sprouter. Grinding alone doesn’t always stop suckers from popping up across the lawn for a year or two. We can apply a stump treatment immediately after cutting to dramatically reduce that.
• Dispose of the wood properly. Don’t move the wood off your property unless it’s chipped — you’re potentially spreading viable seed.

What to Plant Instead

If you remove a Bradford pear and want a similar-sized flowering tree to replace it, Southwest Missouri has excellent native options:

• Serviceberry (Amelanchier arborea) — early white flowers, fall color, edible berries
• Eastern redbud (Cercis canadensis) — Missouri’s state tree, brilliant magenta-pink flowers
• Flowering dogwood (Cornus florida) — classic spring blooms, beautiful structure
• American plum (Prunus americana) — fragrant white flowers, supports native pollinators
• Native hawthorn (Crataegus species) — tough, drought-tolerant, supports tons of wildlife

Free Bradford Pear Assessment

If you’ve got a Bradford pear and you’re wondering whether to remove it now, wait a year, or just trim it — we’ll come look at it, no charge. We’ll tell you honestly what condition it’s in and what your options are.