STREET LEAVES--A Mess to Address

It's roundup time here, way out in western NJ. Urban cowboys strap on their leafblowers and set to drivin' all the wayward foliage streetward.

Eventually, the township will rustle up all these leaves with big convoys and haul 'em off to the big leafyard outside of town, where they'll be civilized into compost. Nice compost, but what a production.

Even folks who live in the woods feel the autumn urge to push leaves out onto the country road.

What's going on here? Do we secretly wish to see all roads revert to soil?

Streets are not the safest place to put leaves. These skidmarks suggest a truck slid on wet leaves into Snowden Lane.

This photo was taken just after a mother retrieved a boy from a leafpile that, naturally enough, he really wanted to play in. Leaves are such a delight for kids. To pile them in the street turns a joy into a hazard.
(Update, 2011: This homeowner has become an enthusiastic composter of leaves, helped along by the free leaf corrals the township made available last fall.)

Here, the landscaper carefully kept the leaves out of the street, piling them instead on the sidewalk. They've been sitting there for more than a week, killing the narrow strip of grass and inconveniencing pedestrians.