LEAF BLOWERS

WRITERS’ CHAPTER STORY-OF-THE-MONTH – JANUARY 2018

LEAF BLOWERS

by Shelly Papernik

My daughter’s community is making a big effort to get rid of gas-powered leaf blowers. We see them inForest Hills, usedconstantly by both the residents and the Forest Hills Gardens Corporation. The Gardens men work as aphalanx, four or five men at a time blowing down the street at once. Sometimes the men halt their work as we approache on foot or even in a car to let us pass, but more often than not we have to cross the street. This inconvenience is the least of our problems with leaf blowers, and in itself would probably be acceptable as a necessary evil connected with modern living.

However, the evil is much greater than might be expected at first blow. Here are some quotes from the brochure put out by Bedford, NY:

1. “…lawn care equipment accounts for 10% of the pollution in the United States.”
2. “…pollution from lawn care equipment will be higher than that generated by cars by 2020.”
3. “…Americans spill 17 million gallons of fuel per year while filling…lawn care equipment…more than the…Exxon Valdez oil spill!”
4. …a gas leaf blower operated for one hour generates the same amount of pollution as 40 cars idling.”
5. “The high velocity leaf blowers, often operating at hurricane force, blow into the air many toxic elements… Pollutants include salt, lead, arsenic, mercury…pesticides,…fungicides, herbicides, rodenticides,…mold and fungus, fecal matter.”
6. Approximately 5 pounds of particulate matter per leaf blower per hour are blown into the air and can take hours and even days to settle.”

Leaf blowers cause danger to our health, our hearing and our water supply.

Also, all plants, including lawns, need organic matter to thrive. We want to leave some of it on the garden, not blow it all away. In addition to the blowers creating our own personal pollution and smog area around our houses, they are also creating our own personal dust bowl. Along with the leaves the topsoil is blown away from the garden making the garden less and less productive each year.

And one more thing, our climate change is largely due to too much carbon in the atmosphere. Carbon is not inherently bad. It’s just bad up there in the sky. Carbon can be stored safely. The best way is the way it has been stored in the past, in plants, in fossil fuels buried deep in our earth, and in the soil. When a few leaves are left on the soil, they turn to humus, which enriches the soil which in turn enriches the plants, and which keeps the carbon safely out of the atmosphere. One of the best pieces of equipment is a mulching mower. It grinds the leaves up very small and redeposits them on the ground. This is good for the plants and good for human beings.

A lawn is not a living room. A lawn is alive. It is not meant to be kept clean of every piece of organic material. Think of a walk through a forest. The trees grow and have leaves, seeds, flowers and fruit. They all fall down onto the forest floor. God does not send angels down with leaf blowers to clean this up. It all stays there and decomposes, adding to the soil which in turn feeds the trees. When you walk in the forest the ground feels spongy under your feet. This is the way soil is supposed to be, not hard as rock. It also smells wonderful.

We’ve been looking for life all over the universe. So far the only life we’ve found is right here on this planet. Isn’t it a pity we’re so hellbent on destroying it. We can’t always make a difference in another country, state or even city, but we can make a difference right here where we live. Gardening and farming are not synonymous with machinery. They’re synonymous with plants and soil. In Los Angeles leaf blowers are illegal. They get along just fine without them. Their lawns and gardens are beautiful. The gardeners survive and so do the people. Perhaps we could do the same. Life is rare. Let’s preserve it.