On October 12, 2024, the Thomas Hart-Benton Group of The Sierra Club (the THB Group), along with its partners, organized the beginnings of a successful Callery pear tree (Pyrus calleryiana) removal project at the interchange of I-470 and Lakeside Drive in the Kansas City region. Along with the Missouri Department of Conservation, the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT), the Missouri Invasive Species Council and others, several determined volunteers worked alongside MoDOT staff to remove about one-third of the Callery pear trees that had grown up at the intersection. The MoDOT staff provided a front loader to pick up cut trees and filled a whole dump truck with shredded trees. Cut stumps were treated with herbicide.
Future workdays (to be held each second Saturday of each month from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. through March 2025, with the next workday scheduled for November 9, 2024) will remove the remaining trees, and perhaps the volunteers will move to other intersections of I-470. MoDOT anticipates that it will take about two years before the ground at this intersection is ready for a native planting of trees and plants to replace the Callery pear trees because invasive teasel (Dipsacus spp.) is rampant and needs to be treated with herbicide.
It is likely that the THB Group will be seeking partners to continue Callery pear tree eradication as well as on the planting and maintenance of native plants to support pollinating sections along I-470. If you can help, contact the THG Group.
Photos below, by Janet Blauvelt, show volunteers in action to remove Callery pear trees at the I-470 and Lakeside Drive intersection and the results of their work—about one-third of the trees removed from the site!
