I very much appreciated Gary Greene’s opinion piece about leaf blowers in the Aug. 18 Recorder [“The slippery slope of a ban on gas leaf blowers”]. It was great to hear of his experience and use with leaf blowers. Believe it or not, I think we can find some common ground. I would like to refute and make a few related points:
■To the why remove leaves question, he has some reasonable answers although the best for the health of the area is actually to mulch them. We have started doing this in our in-town 0.3-acre yard surrounded by huge maples and oaks with our electric mower and the lawn is healthier and looks great.
■To the seasonal issue: some towns with bans only ban from Memorial Day to Labor Day. In my neighborhood, lawn services use them almost continually through out the summer. Typically 4-5 days per week and at many locations for multiple hours (despite none of the properties being bigger than an acre).
As he points out the main issue is noise and ideally we would indeed have an enforced noise ordinance in town. State regulations limit noise to 10dB above ambient at the property line. Sadly the Board of Health and city public safety to date have been unable to do anything about nuisance noise. I whole-heartedly support City Council passing a general noise ordinance.
Combustion engine cars are indeed being phased out (see Mass Climate Plan, EV rebates etc …). MassSave even has special discounts for electric-powered lawn equipment for those folks who can’t use a rake. Leaf blowers (and other 2-stroke engine) spew a tremendous amount of pollution into the air not to mention the dust, feces, and micro trash that get blown into the air, too. Ever tried walking down Main Street when one of the business is using a leaf blower to (illegally) clear the sidewalk by their store front?
In recent studies, a leaf blower generates more pollution in 30 minutes of use than driving a large pickup truck 3,000 miles!
Let’s make our neighborhoods more livable and get rid of as much noise pollution as we can!
Garth Shaneyfelt
Greenfield