Re: Bradford Pears
- To: m*@ucdavis.edu
- Subject: Re: Bradford Pears
- From: K*@aol.com
- Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1999 19:03:00 EDT
I've also enjoyed reading the postings on Bradford pear, and now I
unhesitatingly withdraw the recommendation. Little did I suspect the strong
negative reaction the mere mention of them would elicit. I've never grown
them myself, and they aren't terribly overplanted around here, so I had never
heard of any of the problems that others have described. There is a street
in an otherwise-ugly industrial part of town that I have to drive down every
day on my way to work. Some years ago, our city fathers (and mothers)
decided to 'beautify' this street by planting Bradford pears. In Spring it
is now a "white way of delight," and in Autumn, an avenue of flaming scarlet.
It was on this basis that I made my recommendation. Perhaps Bradford pear
is just one of those things that is best admired from a distance.
Speaking of starlings, I readan article recently that said starling
populations in Europe are declining alarmingly. I think it said there are
fewer than 10 million birds remaining. I thought it was interesting, because
there are over a billion of them now in the Western hemisphere, all descended
from a single introduction in Central Park, New York, just about 100 years
ago. In Winter, here in Northern California, we have single flocks that
number over 10 million! They cause millions of dollars in crop-damage every
year, and have decimated the populations of most of our less-agressive,
hole-nesting birds. I think the article facetiously mentioned the idea of
exporting some of our excess back to Europe. English (House) sparrows have
been similarly successful here, and can be found nearly everywhere people can
be found from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego.
Kurt Mize
Stockton, California
USDA Zone 9
