Charles Town tree board plans Bradford pear removals, pursues $50,000 nursery grant

The Charles Town Tree Board on Oct. 10 moved forward on plans to remove invasive Bradford pear trees and pursue a separate grant to establish a small nursery at the city maintenance yard.

Chair said he confirmed with Bob Hannah at the Department of Forestry that matching funds for removals are available through the end of the year, and the board received “an estimate from Viking of about $5,700 to remove the Bradford Payers on West Washington Street,” which the group is scheduling.

Why it matters: removing invasive Bradfords and replacing them with appropriately selected species is part of the board’s broader canopy strategy and factors into a pending grant proposal the board says is large portion of its funding request.

Board members discussed siting a compact nursery along the maintenance-yard fence using a Missouri gravel bed, gutter-runoff into an existing 500‑gallon tank and an automated pump to reduce labor. The staff member described a timeline aiming for spring planting — “probably February and March” — and identified a target grant request of “50,000” to cover nursery setup and initial stock.

The chair said the proposed nursery would begin small — a few hundred starter trees — and be designed to be portable so it can be expanded or moved as needed. The board also discussed using bare‑root seedlings to overwinter and planting them next season.

Next steps: the board will get a contractor date for the Bradford removals, announce the work on the city website and social media, and incorporate the nursery scope and cost estimate into the grant application. The board did not take a formal vote on the nursery grant at the meeting.

Sources: statements by the Chair and the staff member during the Oct. 10 meeting.