Missouri hosting Callery Pear buyback program

Missouri is hosting a pear tree buyback program.

Homeowners are invited to cut down one or more of the trees, which burst into bloom a few weeks ago.

Callery pear trees and receive one free, non-invasive tree at the event.

Angela Sokolowski with the state Department of Conservation explains that it’s a beautiful but troublesome – and smelly – tree.

“I believe the beauty of these trees is really outweighed by the bad smell of the blossoms. Even though it’s an attractive tree, its a really weak-wooded tree,” Sokolowski states.

“They reproduce very rapidly and spread across the landscape in places they would not naturally be. The Callery Pear buyback is an effort to inform residents of the State of Missouri that this is a tree we don’t want to see on the landscape.”

Callery pear, otherwise known as Bradford pear, is native to China and was brought to the U.S. in 1917 for hybridization with fruiting pears to improve disease resistance.

Landowners can contact the state about the buyback program by visiting moinvasives.org