We like trees! We Drew students have our very own forest in our backyard, so why are we disrupting this natural environment? Leaf-blowing is an everyday offense on our campus life—it disrupts not only our lives as students but also our environment.
Trees provide many benefits such as clean air and habitats for wildlife, and fallen leaves are the primary source of much of that. Fallen leaves are littered all around our campus and provide homes for little critters such as chipmunks and earthworms.
We love our little guys that populate Drew and want them to have a safe home on our woody campus. Without leaf litter, the natural life cycle of many organisms is disrupted. While chatting with Dr. Jessica McQuigg of the Drew University Biology Department, I, Katie Germinder, learned about the many different benefits of leaf litter.
One of the main benefits is that leaf litter allows for nutrients sequestered in leaves such as nitrogen, phosphorus and carbon to become integrated into the food web through decomposers.
Leaf litter also provides a natural habitat and food resource for many invertebrates and small amphibians. Most of the amphibians such as lungless salamanders find their homes in the Drew Forest, which is not touched by any of the general campus maintenance.
Unfortunately, several invertebrates such as caterpillars and moths are harmed by the lawn maintenance around our campus. These critters lay their eggs on leaves before they fall. So after the leaves do fall, they still dwell on the leaves on the ground.
Nonetheless, we must consider the fact that our campus is filled with recreational lawns that will die if they are covered in damp leaf litter. There is a way we can create a compromise with all of these perspectives.
Not only do leaf blowers disturb natural life, but they also create air pollution that directly affects the residents of Drew. The California Resources Board completed a study that showed that the amount of pollution emitted from an hour of gas-powered leaf blowing is the same amount of smog-forming pollution that comes from driving a Toyota Camry from Los Angeles to Denver due to the type of engine used in these small, but powerful machines.
“I believe that leaf blowing should be stopped because it is harmful for the environment due to the amount of pollution as well as the noise it creates,” said Holly Fischer (‘28) when asked about her concern about the leaf blowing.
A study done by Dr. Jamie L. Banks and Robert McConnell showed that gas-powered leaf blowers mix oil and gasoline and spit out as much as a third of that fuel as unburned aerosol, which added to a quarter of all emissions of cancer-causing benzene in 2011. If young children and older folks are warned to not breathe in these fumes, no one should be breathing them.
After considering all of the pros and cons of leaf blowing around our campus, it is clear that we need to think of a solution that benefits everyone involved.
Chopping up leaf litter allows for lawns to still grow and prosper and provides natural fertilizer instead of having to resort to other fertilizers. This process would still unfortunately harm most invertebrates, yet would be the best solution. Discussing all of this with Dr. McQuigg truly allowed me to see both sides of the issue at hand around our campus.
Leaf blowing should also be done during times when students are not roaming around and can be accidentally attacked by the leaf dust the blowers create, so mainly during the midafternoon on the weekdays or the weekends.
We understand that blowing and chopping leaves up is essential to keeping Drew University’s campus alive and flourishing, but we believe that there is a better way to go about it without disturbing campus life, and Drew should respond accordingly.
Allison Cannon is a first-year double-majoring in psychology and studio art with a minor in Spanish.
Katie Germinder is a sophomore majoring in environmental studies and sustainability.
Featured image courtesy of Allison Cannon.
