Sharing the (leaf) harvest

I’m writing in support of the new leaf program. The point of it isn’t to bag leaves, it’s about changing how we treat these precious resources. Leaves are not trash to be hauled away, but something that has value.

Leaving the leaves in our yards also supports the goals of our Climate Ready Oak Park sustainability plan.

Last year, 60 Oak Park residents on the Oak Park Fall Tree Stroll, hosted by Climate Ready Community Outreach to Oak Park (COOP), learned from three tree experts from Morton Arboretum, the Cook County Forest Preserves, and West Cook Wild Ones that leaving the leaves is the best thing we can do for our trees, especially in this time of rapid climate change.

Leaves are nature’s best fertilizer and they support biodiversity in a big way. Leaves can feed our soil for our trees and gardens. Leaving a nice layer of leaves in your beds houses butterflies and other beneficial insects over winter. If you mulch them, leaves can fertilize your grass.

And this new way of treating leaves can even feed our relationships with our neighbors as we figure out how to divide the “fall harvest.”

Case in point: I have a large yard and mostly young trees, so I’m often scrounging leaves out of the piles on the street because I don’t have enough leaves for my needs. I wonder if neighbors on blocks could eventually work out leaf distribution together. Like sharing tomatoes or zucchini during the summer … or sharing tools like a snow blower or tasks like snow shoveling for an elderly neighbor.

Maybe folks will start saving their old sheets and using those to rake leaves into, and then dragging them down the block to someone who wants them. Or small/young entrepreneurs might offer this service.

Years ago I read a book on permaculture and it talked about sharing resources inside one’s immediate community, and how powerful that can be. Here’s another opportunity.

Laurie Casey
Programs director, One Earth Local
Member of Oak Park Climate Action Network (OPCAN)
Member of Climate Ready Community Outreach to Oak Park (COOP)

This was originally posted on the Wednesday Journal on 5/21/2024