Listen to Birds, Not Leaf Blowers
by Peggy Rambach
“Leaf blowers are the sound of Andover,” a phrase we have likely all heard someone say at one time or another. Well, leaf blowers don’t need to be our sound!
Negative Impact of Gas-powered Leaf Blowers
The use of gas-powered leaf blowers are a serious threat to public health and to everyone who uses one. Emissions from their primitive two-stroke engines are not regulated. The decibel level, vibration and fine particulate matter they emit adversely affect our auditory and respiratory systems; the sound induces stress that compromises cardiac and mental health.
And it’s not just the impact on individuals wielding leaf blowers. Leaf blowers destroy insect nesting sites in leaf litter, in turn reducing insect population and life that depends on insects for food and pollination. Gas-powered leaf-blowers contribute to the cause of our planet's rising temperature.
What’s Being Done
As the town’s current gas-powered equipment ages out, Chris Cronin, Andover’s director of the Department of Public Works is replacing equipment with battery powered. Andover can do even more. Lexington, Arlington and Brookline all impose time and seasonal restrictions on the use of gas-powered leaf blowers, or ban them completely.
Unfortunately, to replace gas-powered leaf blowers with the most powerful electric ones is expensive especially for landscape companies. Currently, MassSave offers rebates, however, the rebate doesn’t cover the full cost.
What Else Can Be Done?
Speak up to Select Board members! Andover’s Select Board can help landscapers make the transition by engaging the American Green Zone Alliance to offer workshops that educate and certify landscape company owners and staff in the use of electric equipment. Many homeowners would appreciate a seal of approval for companies that are all-electric.
In addition to advocating for the Select Board to offer workshops, you can hire landscapers that use electric equipment. If you are a homeowner or building owner, can also can change your landscape esthetic from manicured to natural, by composting leaves into your lawns and even replacing lawns with gardens designed to support pollinator species. As an added benefit less watering is needed!
Benefits to Landscapers
Once the transition is complete, the benefits for landscape companies are many. Patrick Louis, owner of the all-electric Clean-Air Lawn Care in Chelmsford, has so many clients that he has to resist taking on new ones. Nancy Sainburg, owner of Enchanted Gardens in Washington D.C., says that her staff no longer calls out sick with respiratory illness and ultimately prefer electric to gas-powered equipment. Electric equipment, she said, is easier and less costly to maintain and repair and she no longer arrives home each workday reeking of gasoline. Plus with the escalating gas prices, landscape companies and homeowners will more quickly recoup their investment.
There will be a time when the “sound of Andover” is not the sound of leaf-blowers but the sound of birds and wind. Let’s make that time, now.
