Every fall, Oregon State University landscaping crews fan out across campus with leaf blowers to combat the avalanche of leaves falling from our famously tree-filled campus. Unfortunately, this routine maintenance is noisy and can be disruptive.
Why get rid of leaves in the first place?
Landscape crews prioritize removing leaves from hard surfaces — walkways, ramps, sidewalks and parking lots — for safety reasons. Wet leaves start to rot quickly in Corvallis’ climate and become a slipping hazard, especially for anyone with mobility challenges, so clearing the leaves helps ensure equal access.
Leaves left in the street can pile up and clog storm drains, or create pools of standing water, another safety hazard.
Leaf cleanup is actually a year-round endeavor and includes tree needles as well as crews clearing off rooftops, but the period from roughly mid-October to mid-November is the most visible leaf season.
Crews allow leaves that fall into shrub beds to compost in place, which supports healthy soil and plant growth. Sometimes leaves are blown from hard surfaces into landscaping beds for this purpose. Any leaves that are collected are composted on campus; they are not sent to landfills.
Leaves are blown off grassy lawns to keep those spaces open for recreation and enjoyment by the OSU community, where decomposing leaves would hinder grass growth.
What about the noise?
Landscaping staff limit leaf blowing to certain times of day, and avoid blowing leaves during high traffic times or directly around events to minimize disruption. They use sweepers to clear parking lots to reduce the use of leaf blowers.
While some have suggested raking instead of leaf blowing, raking is not effective at clearing wet leaves from pavement, and it is a much slower and more labor-intensive process, which increases personnel costs and leaves debris on walkways for longer periods, increasing the risk of people slipping and falling.
OSU is committed to reducing fossil fuel consumption. Why use gas-powered leaf blowers instead of electric ones?
The Landscape Shop began assessing the viability of electric landscaping tools around 2014. Over the next five years, they invited multiple companies to campus to demo the latest electric landscaping equipment.
Landscape staff also met with their counterparts at the University of Southern California to learn about their experience in adopting all-electric landscaping tools. It was a significant investment for USC, as some of the tools cost twice as much as their gas-powered equivalents.
USC also found that electric blowers lack the power to remove wet leaves on grass — perhaps not a big deal in southern California, but a major concern in rainy Corvallis. The longer time needed to remove wet leaves would increase noise issues, labor costs and battery consumption. Electric blowers also tend to be heavier and less ergonomic than gas-powered blowers.
OSU’s landscaping staff concluded that the combination of steep financial costs, uncertain environmental impacts and potential risks to worker safety made a full transition to electric leaf blowers unrealistic given the current limitations in the technology and the unique challenges posed by Oregon’s climate. They remain optimistic that technological advances will make electric blowers more viable in the future.
~ Rebekah Pike