A volunteer force of 25+ tackled this year’s Earth Day project at Jacobson Park, which included invasive species removal and new native tree planters. Friends of Jacobson Park report, “At the time this was planted, the 
neighborhoods around the park were being developed. Callery/Bradford Pears were on the approved street tree list for developers because it was marketed as being sterile and unable to reproduce. They were cheap and almost all neighborhoods chose the pretty but stinky ecological disaster. It was a Jurassic Park nightmare horticulturally that happened after that, and our park has suffered dearly for it. The trees are illegal to plant in many states now, and communities like Lexington offer buyback/free tree exchange programs to get you to remove your Callery Pear Trees to replace with another tree… The trees cross-breed and create the hybridized Pear. They produce thorns that many of us have evidence of on our bodies this evening! These invasive trees along with invasive honeysuckle took over this area and became populated with more of the invasives who outcompete our natives that were planted originally.” A big neighborhood thank-you to the friends and neighbors who help keep Jacobson Park beautiful!
This article also appears in the Neighborhoods Section, page 6 and 7, of the May 2025 Hamburg Journal.
