UPdate : My 3 Asian pears have bloomed and set fruit, so far so good on those even though I pruned out about 50% of those FBed trees last year. But I lost entirely my Moon Glow pear as the FB infected the main trunk last season and evidently killed the tree. I'm certain that the trunk was infected by one lonely bud spur on the lower trunk portion last season and the frost-killed blossoms allowed the FB to infect from that point directly into the trunk. Also, my Claps Favorite was 70 decimated by FB last year and it may die yet as it is struggling now. The only pear tree that was not affected by FB last spring was the Anjour' (sp?) variety and I now believe that this was becuase it did not bloom last year. It bloomed really good this year and looks to set fruit soon. Dead or frozen blossoms appear to be the point source for FB and then it spreads thru the bud spur, down the stem, down the branch, and finally into the trunk. Note to self - remove all future bud spurs from main trunk if they fail to set fruit, and remove all frost killed blossoms ASAP.

Mark, once a tree has fireblight, the bacteria is spread through the entire tree, even if the wood is healthy. At that point, all you can do is just cut out any branch that shows signs of infection. The aim at removing the branch isn't to rid the tree of fireblight, but to prevent the infection from spreading to other trees. I've read the literature on this and didn't believe it when I first read the fact that fireblight bacteria will travel all the way from the point of infection (flowers) down to the roots. However, over the last couple of years, I've had numerous fireblight infections that I got to observe. On an apple tree, fireblight entered through the blossoms and fast growing MM-111 rootstock sucker tips started to show infection. On a pear tree, a branch got infected, but the variety was fairly resistant. However, on the same tree that was grafted with other varieties, grafts of obviously highly susceptible varieties started to get infected starting from the graft point upwards. That was proof beyond any doubt to me that the fireblight bacteria had traveled all the way through the entire tree. Fireblight thrives on fast growing shoots, but can't really grow much in areas of the tree where the level of carbohydrates is high. So the best thing to do is to cut the infection out down to last year's wood. If the infection goes beyond that, then keep cutting to the next big branch. Oh, and cleaning nippers is a waste of time since the bacteria is throughout the tree.

Alright a few more pieces to the puzzle. your arborists mentioned borer and orange sap. the primary borer that attacks cherry trees is the peach tree borer which almost always affects the very bottom of the trunk of the tree (maybe 12 or less inches from ground level) now there are occasionally borers or bark beetles that will enter the tree higher up but in my experience they are secondary or advantageous pests usually affecting trees or individual limbs that are already highly stressed/damaged due to some other cause. That being said, there are other factors that can cause this orange sap type of bleeding...one is called gummosis which is an abiotic (meaning not caused by insect or disease) issue where sap is exuded out of the trees lenticiles, these are the small horizontal "dashes" in the trees bark. this can be caused by mechanical (physical) or winter injury, excess fertilization, drought stress etc. and there is no cure other than to keep the tree as healthy as possible and let it grow out of it. The other cause for this bleeding is, as mentioned above, bacterial canker, the most common of which is called Pseudomonas syringae. one way to potentially tell whether you have gumosis or bacterial canker is to go to the affected (bleeding) area and press firmly with your thumbs and feel for a soft or sunken area immediatley around the sap. if it feels soft/mushy or sunkin in then you are probably dealing with a bacterial canker, if not it may simply be gummosis. this little push test is not 100% accurate of coarse but sometimes it works. So first off, where are these " borer holes" located (down at ground level or higher up in the tree?) Second, does this orange sap appear to be coming out of the lenticiles or is it just coming straight out of the bark. Third, is the area around the bleeding soft/mushy or sunken in. I don't think planting a few bushes around the tree is of any real concern, but another thing that i forgot to ask before is if by any chance the soil around that tree has for any reason been compacted lately (within the past 2 or 3 years) like heavy vehicles driving near it etc. hope this helps, Ron R. Here is a link that might be useful: bacterial canker

It depends on how much of the trees are affected. A few branches might be manageable. If the majority of the tree's branches are affected, it might be better to cull. You might be surprised how much you can prune off a fruit tree and have it come back, though. You can preventatively treat the surrounding pear, plum and cherry with a copper fungicide. Bonide is a concentrate that you could pick up at most garden centers. Read up up on it though, with the little ones running around it could be a challenge to spray and allow for dry time. If you decide to cull, look for fireblight resistant varieties like Golden Delicious to plant. What I'm reading is that fireblight is an above ground disease, so you can replant in the same spot. It's spread by wet conditions which we haven't had, but also by driving, hard rains and hail which we certainly have had. Fruit trees are challenging. If you look into the spraying schedules that are recommended, dormant oil in fall/winter, pre flowering spraying, post flowering spraying, etc. it seems pretty daunting. I did it for a few years, then decided to just let it be. I've only had one incident with fireblight, one branch on an apple that I caught early and pruned out. I am surely not an expert. You kind of have to decide if you're willing to use chemicals or if you can live with what comes.