Bristol, PA Invasive Plant Rules: Prohibited Species (2026)

Section 22-523, Landscape Improvements, in Bristol Borough's Chapter 22 closes with a subsection titled Approved Plant Material. It has three parts. Part A says plant material is selected from the Bristol Borough specifications and design standards incorporated by reference, as amended from time to time by resolution of Borough Council. Part B is the invasive species screen: plant material shall not be classified as an invasive species according to the most recent lists provided by USDA, DCNR Bureau of Forestry, or the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture. Part C requires disease free varieties.

The Code names no individual plants. It points to three outside lists and says the most recent version controls, so a species added to a list after a plan is drawn is measured against the current list. The screen reaches every planting in the section, including street trees, buffer yard plantings, parking area landscaping and the plantings around stormwater management facilities.

The process around the screen is detailed. The landscape plan must be signed and sealed by a landscape architect registered in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and it must include an inventory of all trees indicating size, species, and location for all trees greater than three inches in caliper. Plantings are installed, inspected, and approved before an occupancy permit is issued. Parking area plantings must survive soot, salt, and fumes. Subsection 3 makes the owner responsible for replacing any material that is damaged, missing, dead, diseased, or exhibiting poor growth habits.