11 Callery pear trees to get axed, Bloomington’s park board OKs $17K contract
By mid-November, nine of Bloomington’s Callery pear trees will be cut down, along the B-Line Trail, north of the 3rd Street bridge and south of 4th Street.
Their stumps will be ground down six inches below the surface. Eight of the trees are eventually to be replaced with a native species.
Another two Callery pears on the west side of the B-Line just south of Kirkwood Avenue will also be removed and replaced as a part of the contracted work.
The removal of the trees is part of Bloomington’s 15-year plan to eradicate all of the Callery pears in the public right-of-way. They’re considered to be an invasive species, and are prohibited as street trees under city code. Based on the city’s online tree inventory, Bloomington now has 1,246 public Callery pears.
A $17,523 contract with Bluestone Tree for the Callery pear removal and replacement was approved by the four-member board of park commissioners at its regular Tuesday meeting.
Included in the contract with Bluestone is the replacement of the trees.
At Tuesday’s board of park commissioners meeting, the city’s urban forester, Haskell Smith, responded to a question from park commissioner Jim Whitlatch by listing off some possibilities for native species that might replace the pear trees—yellowwood, hophornbeam, or coffeetree.
According to Smith’s memo to the board, the work will require shutting down the B-Line Trail for two or three hours.
Smith’s memo says a low-traffic time will be chosen, and flaggers will be stationed on both sides of the closure. Barriers will be installed and temporary rerouting plans will be put in place, according to the memo.
