This weekend a friend helped us take out two trees in our front yard.  When we first bought our house I did not pay much attention to the trees that the prior owners (the house flippers) had planted.  They just seemed like a couple pretty little trees.  A few years later and I am now learning about how invasive this particular tree is.



The Bradford Pear is often sold as a landscaping tree.  After I woke up to the information out there about this tree I did not feel so bad removing live trees from the yard.  What was surprising was beauty of the wood.  As a wood worker I am immediately drawn to the gorgeous deep orange color of the wood.  Our friend who helped up take the tree down is also going to mill a couple pieces out of the largest trunk.  I will be interested to see if the wood changes color as it dries out.

Here is more information about how invasive and bad these trees are.  Doing our part to stop the spread.  We are thinking of replanting some redbuds or other native this spring.