Finally, a Fair and Logical Approach to Addressing Leaf Blower 'Side Effects'

Municipal leaf blower ordinances are in the news again, this time in New York state. Normally reports like this irk me because the passage of an ordinance is often driven by activists, and/or ill-informed city officials and/or residents. But not this time, or so it appears. The local news report suggests that the person(s) driving the proposed ordinance is perhaps willing to take into consideration: 1) how a leaf blower ordinance would likely affect professional landscape contractors in a negative way, and 2) that leaf blower use doesn't need to be abolished entirely, as some municipalities across the country have concluded. I'm also happy to see that at least a couple of local landscape contractors, who were interviewed for the below story, are getting out ahead of this by bringing important information to light, such as the fact that today's leaf blowers are much quieter and more environmentally friendly than in the past. The contractors also note that, OK, if you want to tell us we can't use productivity-enhancing gas-powered leaf blowers, we'll be more than happy to rake, but it's going to cost people more to hire us. Fair enough: Let consumers/taxpayers decide how important it is to ban the use of lawn and landscape equipment like leaf blowers, not a handful of activists. STORY HERE ~ Gregg Wartgow, editor in chief