Bradford Pear Removal in Mississippi: Fields, Thorns and Cost

In March, before most trees in Mississippi have leafed out, some pastures and old hay fields turn white from one fence line to the other. Those are not planted trees. They are the wild offspring of the Bradford pear, and once they close in a field they are thorny, they sprout back when cut, and they make more of themselves every year. Removing them means mulching the stand, cutting the sprouts that follow and, if you want it, a licensed applicator treating the stumps. Clearing a field of younger pear typically runs $1,500 to $2,500 an acre.

Bradford Pear and Its Wild Offspring

Its tidy shape, spring flowers and red fall color made Bradford pear a favorite ornamental across the Southeast, and for years the planted trees set no fruit. That changed once the trees began to cross-pollinate and produce abundant fruit that birds spread.

Bradford was the first named cultivar of callery pear (Pyrus calleryana). The catch: the ornamental cultivars are typically thornless, but their seedlings are not. The trees escaping into fields are the thorny kind.

How widespread is it? It grows over much of Mississippi in open ground, is most troublesome near the cities, and is common along the Natchez Trace Parkway, the road that crosses the state from Natchez to the Tennessee line.

Callery pear is not regulated as a noxious weed in Mississippi. Its thorns, spread into old fields and regrowth after cutting are practical reasons to clear it. Before work starts, check the clearing, burning and stormwater requirements that apply to your property.

How to spot it. The flowers are white, up to an inch across, and open before the leaves, typically in March in Mississippi. Leaves are 1.5 to 3 inches long and oval. The fruit is small, about half an inch, brown and dotted outside with a gritty, off-white inside. A field that blooms white in early spring is the easiest survey you will ever do: walk it then, or photograph it from the road, and you know where every tree is.

How Callery Pear Takes Over a Field

Birds plant it. Birds eat the fruit after frost has softened it, and birds and other animals spread the seed in their droppings. A fence wire or a lone tree in a pasture is a perch, which is why seedlings so often come up in lines.

It goes where the ground is open. The tree prefers open sites such as rights-of-way, old fields (including CRP land) and fence rows, and it can be very abundant in old fields. A pasture that goes unmowed for a few seasons is exactly what it needs.

It makes a lot of fruit and spreads from its roots. Once established it is hard to get rid of, because of its thorns, its root suckers and the sheer volume of its fruit. Every year a stand stays, it adds seed for the next.

It becomes a hazard. The thorns are the part owners notice first: on saplings they can puncture vehicle, ATV or tractor tires and injure livestock. A field you cannot drive across or turn cattle into has stopped being much use.

Why One Cutting Brings It Back

Cutting a callery pear down does not kill the roots, and the roots are what come back.

• Mowing alone holds it, it does not remove it. Young trees can persist under mowing for many years. A bush hog keeps the field open only for as long as you keep mowing it.
• Even heavy equipment leaves roots behind. Larger trees may need bulldozing, and even then they can sucker from roots left in the soil.
• The stumps answer back. Cut stumps need herbicide right away: a cut stump left untreated sends up new shoots.

One pass opens the field, and our quote lists the return visits. The visits after it decide whether it stays open.

Clearing a Pear Field, Visit by Visit

1. Survey in bloom. Mark the field edges, the trees you want kept and any wet ground while the pear is white in March.
2. First pass on firm ground. A forestry mulcher cuts every pear stem in the stand and grinds it to chips where it stood, stumps flush with the ground. On bottomland that usually waits for the drier months of late summer and fall.
3. Stump treatment, if you choose it, right after the cut. Because stumps need treating immediately, any chemical follow-up is booked to arrive with the cutting. That is a licensed applicator’s work, hired by you; Cut Brush does the mechanical work only. Cut stump, frill, basal bark and foliar treatments are the applicator’s to choose from.
4. Cut the suckers the next season. Shoots come up from the roots. Cutting them while they are small costs far less than clearing a thicket again.
5. Check every March. Next year’s bloom shows any tree or sucker that was missed. Regular mowing keeps new seedlings small until they are cut out.

What about the brush pile? A pile of cut pear keeps its thorns. If you burn it, Mississippi’s open burning rules apply: as of October 2026, no burning of land clearing debris within 500 yards of an occupied dwelling without a forced-draft system (50 yards with one), and none during a High Fire Danger Alert. Mulching avoids the question, because the thorny stems are ground to chips on the spot and there is no pile to burn or drag.

What Bradford Pear Removal Costs

Clearing a field or fence line of younger callery pear typically runs $1,500 to $2,500 per acre, the Callery pear and fence row band on our Amory pricing page; every Mississippi market prices its understory row at the same band. An old, closed thicket with thick trunks prices as forestry mulching, $1,500 to $4,000 per acre.

Job	Typical range	Notes
Young pear and brush in an old field or fence line	$1,500 – $2,500 per acre	A long, narrow fence line is counted by its acreage equivalent
Closed thicket of older trees	$1,500 – $4,000 per acre	The forestry mulching band
Pear cleared as part of opening a whole tract	$1,500 – $4,500 per acre	The land clearing band, to the finish in your quote
One small stand or a single short fence line	$1,500 minimum charge	Where small jobs start; not a fee on top
Return cuts for root suckers	Priced per visit	Listed in the quote as their own lines
Stump treatment	Separate trade	Quoted by a licensed applicator

Each pass grinds stems and stumps into mulch on site, stumps flush with the ground, with nothing hauled away. Full stump removal below grade, and cutting and hauling very large trees, are discussed and priced in the quote. Grading is not part of our price.

What about one Bradford pear by the house? A single large ornamental beside a home is usually tree-removal work, taken down in sections. On rural ground, a lone tree or a short row can be felled and ground as part of a clearing job, priced in the quote. On its own it falls under the minimum charge.

What moves a pear job inside its band is the age and density of the stand, how firm the ground is, how many keeper trees the operator steers around, and how far the machine travels between patches. Statewide figures for every kind of clearing are in our Mississippi land clearing cost guide.

Callery Pear Across Mississippi’s Markets

Amory and the Tombigbee Valley. Old fields and fence lines around Amory, Aberdeen, MS, Okolona and Fulton, MS are typical pear ground, and the Tombigbee bottoms stay wet through winter and early spring, so first passes on low ground wait for late summer and fall. See land clearing around Amory and the Amory pricing page.

Northeast Mississippi around Corinth. On the hill ground of Alcorn and Tishomingo counties, kudzu is often the bigger vine problem, and a pear field there gets the same mulch-and-return plan. See land clearing around Corinth.

The Golden Triangle around Starkville. Old prairie pasture there often fills with eastern redcedar. Where pear is mixed in, plan the return visits above, because the pear is what sprouts back. See land clearing around Starkville.

Central Mississippi around Jackson. Callery pear is most troublesome near metropolitan areas, and the Jackson metro is the state’s largest. See land clearing around Jackson.

The Pine Belt around Hattiesburg. Where cogongrass shares a field with pear, the order of work changes, because cogongrass is treated before any machine crosses it. See land clearing around Hattiesburg.

The Gulf Coast around Gautier. Low, wet ground and Chinese tallow set most jobs there; pear in a coastal field follows the same timing and return-visit plan. See land clearing around Gautier.

The Mississippi Delta around Indianola. Fence rows and field edges are where Delta brush builds up, and a pear sapling in a fence row is cleared the same way as the privet beside it. See land clearing around Indianola.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Bradford pear illegal in Mississippi?

No. Callery pear is not regulated as noxious in Mississippi, so removing it here is your choice, not a legal requirement.

Will Bradford pear grow back after it is cut?

Yes, from the roots, unless the stumps are treated right after cutting or the sprouts are cut back on schedule. Plan on at least one return visit.

Can I just bush hog a pear field?

Mowing keeps young trees short, but they can persist under mowing for many years. Once the stems are woody, a mulcher and a follow-up plan do the job a mower cannot.

How much does it cost to clear Bradford pear in Mississippi?

Fields of younger pear typically run $1,500 to $2,500 per acre and closed thickets $1,500 to $4,000, with a minimum charge of about $1,500 for small jobs. Return cuts are priced per visit, and stump treatment is a separate trade.

Request a Quote for a Pear Field

Request a free quote and we’ll contact you to discuss your property, access and the clearing you need. Our crew plans pear work in the order that holds: surveyed in bloom, cut, cut again and checked the next spring.