The ubiquitous use of gas-powered leaf blowers is unfortunate for obvious reasons: they are a huge source of pollution in the form of greenhouse gases, particulates and noise. While estimates vary on just how much pollution and CO2 leaf blowers contribute, two-cycle engines are neither clean nor quiet – their exhaust spews out unburned up to 30% of their fuel. Even when adhering to local noise ordinances (which are often unenforced), blower noise can still be irritating because of its changing amplitude and particularly annoying pitch. Unlike manual raking, the dust produced by mechanical leaf blowers is substantial, and contains allergens, fecal matter, and mold spores. A 2000 California EPA report on the potential health and environmental impacts of leaf blowers referred to research showing that “biologic materials from at least 20 different source materials known to be capable of causing or exacerbating allergenic disease in humans are found in paved road dust….”

Then there are the less obvious consequences; year after year, leaf-blowing, which in this area is generally combined with leaf removal, also deprives yards of humus (compost) matter that, in the past, enriched and aerated the soil and nourished our plants. The high-speed blast of hot, dry air that blowers emit can further damage these sensitive organisms. In the wake of such an assault, cultivated plants suffer and invasive weeds thrive. Having blown the protective cover off our lawns and woodlands, the bare soil is an ideal place for hardy, opportunistic invaders to germinate. Increased erosion is another price our soil pays for the removal of its protective mantle of leaves. And while raking helps to remove excessive thatch in mature lawns, leaf blowers do nothing to address that problem.

The urge to manicure our surroundings has taken on a life of its own in recent years; Palisades, once a hamlet of unkempt underbrush and quixotic gardens, has become a place where no one’s lawn can be seen to sport a stray leaf. The wind blows: minutes later, the leaf blowers are swarming everywhere. And once we’ve shelled out to have the nutrients noisily removed from our properties, we then must resort to paying again for mulch, compost, and fertilizers – with their polluting production processes and nitrogen runoff – to nurse our plants back to health! I realize that most of us do need help with our yards, and that some in the landscaping business are probably endeavoring to be as environmentally responsible as they feel they can. But the current level of leaf-blowing is decidedly unsustainable, perhaps even immoral, and not something we should continue to accept without thought. To me, the ultimate irony is that many of us, ever struggling to get some daily aerobic activity and fresh air for our own health, overlook the opportunity that waits for us every fall. We dash off to the gym, where we pay for the privilege of exercise, while an army of landscapers ravages our property (for a fee!). In the old days, we would have just gone out and raked.

See: Leaf Blower Facts Mulch - a Gardener’s Best Friend What Is Turf Thatch? Praising Leaves/Condemning Leaf Blowers Ban Leafblowers! Determination Particulate Emission Rates from Leaf Blowers