Haverford, PA Invasive Plant Rules: Bamboo Restrictions (2026)

Article V, Bamboo, was adopted 9-12-2011 as Ordinance No. 2640. Section 138-29 states the purpose: to preserve and protect private and public property from the damaging spread of certain running bamboo grasses and to protect indigenous plant materials from the invasive spread of running bamboo. Section 138-30 defines bamboo as any monopodial (running) tropical or semi-tropical grass from the genera Bambusa, including Phyllostachys and Pseudosasa, as well as Common Bamboo, Golden Bamboo and Arrow Bamboo.

Section 138-32 is the ban: the planting or growing of bamboo is prohibited within the Township, and anyone who plants or grows it, or causes it to be planted or grown, is in violation. Section 138-31 makes bamboo found growing on a property presumptive evidence that it was planted or grown by, or with the consent of, the bamboo owner. A "bamboo owner" includes anyone who permits bamboo to remain on the property even if it spread from next door, unless that person did not plant it, can prove to the Township that they objected to the neighbor within a reasonable time, and has started steps to remove it, including remedies at law.

Bamboo planted before the ordinance can stay under § 138-33, with conditions. It cannot exist within 40 feet of the edge of the pavement or traveled portion of any public roadway, and the owner must remove and abate growth inside that distance. The owner must also keep it from encroaching on neighboring property, public property and Township rights-of-way, including by installing sheathing of metal or another material impenetrable by bamboo at a sufficient depth along the property line. Under § 138-35, once the bamboo is dead, destroyed, uprooted or removed for any reason, it cannot be replanted or replaced in kind.

When bamboo invades Township property, § 138-34 requires written notice by certified mail, return receipt requested, and by regular mail, with a copy posted at the owner's property. If the owner does not remove it or arrange removal within 30 days, the Township can remove it, and the owner is liable for the costs, which can be assessed against the owner's property.