Brian Muckerheide stands by recently cut Bradford pear trees, which are growing along North Broadway in Greenfield. Tom Russo | Daily Reporter
Brian Muckerheide stands by recently cut Bradford pear trees, which are growing along North Broadway in Greenfield. Tom Russo | Daily Reporter

To learn more or volunteer through Regreening Greenfield, visit facebook.com/RegreeningGfield.

To learn more about CISMA, visit the Hancock County, Indiana CISMA page on Facebook.

To get involved with Hancock County Master Gardeners, visit facebook.com/hancockmga.

For the Central Indiana Land Trust, visit conservingindiana.org.
GREENFIELD — A small band of volunteers spent a collective 200 hours or so over the past six weeks removing invasive trees and plants in Greenfield, including hundreds of Bradford pear trees.

Brian Muckerheide, a member of Regreening Greenfield, coordinated the effort with Elaine Whitfield, a member of Hancock County Master Gardeners.

Volunteers from both nonprofits pitched in to clear away hundreds of trees and shrubs along the west side of Broadway Street, between McKenzie Road and Muskegon Drive.

Regreening Greenfield also helped facilitate the planting of 75 trees in various spots throughout the city.

Muckerheide said fall was the perfect time to remove invasive trees and plants and replace them with native varieties.

The main culprits that were removed were members of the Callery pear tree family, which includes Bradford pears.

The group also eradicated Autumn olive trees, Asian bush honeysuckle shrubs and Multiflora rose plants.

Muckerheide said the invasive species are dangerous because they push out native species.

“Native plants that would otherwise be growing in an area. The native insects and animals can’t necessarily utilize those resources from the Bradford pears, so it would be better to have the native plants growing there, so native insects and animals can take advantage of them,” he said.

While Bradford pears and other Callery pear trees were long considered a popular choice for landscaping, Muckerheide said that’s no longer the case.

“I don’t think most people know how invasive (Bradford pears) are. There’s been an attempt to get them banned from nurseries,” he said. “Not only are they invasive, but they’re not a good tree either. They split off easily, so after a wind storm you go see many of them damaged.”

Helping hands

Muckerheide said the eradication effort coincided with a similar effort led by Whitfield, director of Hancock County’s Cooperative Invasive Species Management Area (CISMA), a volunteer organization focused on eradicating invasive species.

Over the past several weeks, CISMA volunteers, including several members of Hancock County Master Gardeners, worked to remove invasives along the Pennsy Trail, between Meek Street and the Brandywine corridor.

The group also assisted Regreening Greenfield’s efforts to remove invasives like the Callery pears along Broadway Street.

“We’ll be doing this on an ongoing basis … It’s just an ongoing battle,” said Whitfield, a naturalist and Master Gardener.

CISMA periodically organizes Weed Wrangles, in which volunteers gather to remove invasive species from public spaces such as parks.

“We did four of those on the Pennsy Trail (this year), and we’re not nearly done,” said Whitfield. “In the spring it’s certain species like garlic mustard, and in the fall we mainly concentrate on woody plants like invasive trees and shrubs.

“Invasive species outproduce our native species, and some produce substances in the soil that kill native plants and keep them from growing near them. A lot of them, like bush honeysuckle, have a propensity to be the first to get their leaves and the last to drop them, so they hang around a long time and don’t give native species a chance to reproduce.”

Whitfield said many invasive species come from Asia, and a few from Europe.

“Some of these nonnative, exotic species have been around for a couple hundred years. Early European settlers brought some of these species with them,” Whitfield said.

The invasives didn’t cause problems for a number of years, she said, “but now they’re not behaving. Something’s changed in our environment that has caused some of these (invasives) to just take off and overwhelm everything.”

Whitfield said they can “cause a lot of damage in areas. The state (Department of Natural Resources) has spent millions of dollars removing these invasive species. It’s been a big headache for them.”

Grassroots effort

That’s what makes community-driven volunteer efforts so crucial, Muckerheide said.

The recent widespread eradication effort started out with a smaller project, led by Regreening Greenfield, to plant dozens of trees in various parts of the city.

Sally Parsons, a longtime member of Regreening Greenfield, said the planting project was funded through an Inflation Reduction Act federal grant.

Parsons said Regreening used the funds to pay a professional landscaping company to install 75 trees, including some along the Broadway Street corridor south of New Road.

Others were planted at local schools, including Weston and Harris elementary schools, Greenfield Intermediate School and Greenfield-Central High School.

The planting included many different kinds of tree native to the area, said Parsons, including several types of oaks.

Parsons said the job couldn’t get done without the help of Greenfield Street Department, which has been taking away the debris, gradually diminishing an enormous brush pile along Broadway.

“They were wonderful. We couldn’t have done it without them,” she said.

Parsons said native trees and shrubs provide a number of ecological benefits, in addition to supporting wildlife.

“They take up storm water and clean the air by taking in carbon dioxide and giving us oxygen,” she said, adding the recent planting project included trees ranging in size from six to 10 feet tall.

At 3 p.m. Nov. 20, Regreening Greenfield will dedicate a large “centennial” tree that was recently planted in Riley Park to commemorate the park’s 100th birthday.

Nurturing nature is a passion project for local environmentalists, Muckerheide said.

“I think it was always important to me to help take care of nature,” said the Greenfield man, who became skilled at identifying trees while growing up on an expansive partly-wooded property in Greensburg, and participated in forestry judging contests as a youth.

He now volunteers regularly through Regreening Greenfield and Central Indiana Land Trust, the latter of which acquires land to keep it in its natural state.
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