Sustainability Spotlight - September 2022 - Leave Your Leaves!
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, leaves and other yard debris account for more than 13 percent of the nation’s solid waste. Without enough oxygen to decompose, this organic matter releases methane, a very harmful greenhouse gas.
One of the most valuable things you can do to reduce the effects of methane emissions from yard waste as well as to support pollinators and other invertebrates, is to leave your fall yard waste in place.
One of the next most valuable things you can do to support pollinators and other invertebrates is to provide them with the winter cover they need in the form of fall leaves and standing dead plant material. It may be habitual, a matter of social conditioning, or a holdover of outdated gardening practices from yesteryear—but for whatever reason, we just can’t seem to help ourselves from wanting to tidy up the garden at the end of the season—raking, mowing, and blowing away a bit of nature that is essential to the survival of moths, butterflies, snails, spiders, and dozens of arthropods.
The vast majority of butterflies and moths overwinter in the landscape as an egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, or adult. These butterflies use leaf litter for winter cover. Great spangled fritillary and wooly bear caterpillars tuck themselves into a pile of leaves for protection from cold weather and predators. Red-banded hairstreaks lay their eggs on fallen oak leaves, which become the first food of the caterpillars when they emerge. Luna moths and swallowtail butterflies disguise their cocoons and chrysalises as dried leaves, blending in with the “real” leaves. Examples go on and on!
National Wildlife Federation has this advice to help the planet, your soil, as well as our pollinators:
• Let leaves stay where they fall. They won't hurt your lawn if you chop them with a mulching mower.
• Rake leaves off the lawn to use as mulch in garden beds. For finer-textured mulch, shred them first.
• Let leaf piles decompose; the resulting leaf mold can be used as a soil amendment to improve structure and water retention.
• Make compost: Combine fallen leaves (“brown material”) with grass clippings and other “green material” and keep moist and well mixed. You’ll have nutrient-rich compost to add to your garden next spring.
• Build a brush shelter. Along with branches, sticks and stems, leaves can be used to make brush piles that shelter native wildlife.
• Still too many leaves? Share them with neighbors, friends, schools and others. Some communities will pick up leaves and make compost to sell or give away. Many neighborhoods in Wheat Ridge are offering a compost yard waste pick up service, so watch for those announcements!
