Blowing leaves in the lake
 

Every fall I witness homeowners and landscapers blowing the leaves from their property into the lake. This creates a big floating island of leaves that migrate along shore or out to deeper water depending on the wind. Often, the leaf slick ends up in a cove or at the neighbors lot. I've read articles that leaves contain nutrients similar to fertilizer that in large amounts can attribute to algae blooms. Does anyone know if blowing leaves into NH lakes is illegal? It certainly should be discouraged.

Anyone doing that should be charged with illegal dumping.
Actually had a seasonal neighbor who trimmed brush along his shore line and dumped it in the lake

Almost every car, no matter how small is capable to have a trailer hitch, and tow a small, el cheapo, used utility trailer to haul all the yard leaves, pine needles, pine cones, and wind blown branches to the town transfer station. At the transfer station it gets ground up in a gigantic wood chipper and goes somewhere.

Even a small car like a Ford Fiesta, Scion xD or a VW Rabbit can tow a trailer that weighs a total of 800-1000-lbs for the short run to the local town dump.

A small utility trailer is the way to go. It sits off to the side somewhere in the yard until it gets totally loaded and ready for the trip to the dump. It's always there, forever, ready to get some more yard debris crammed in.

Even the most tired, worn out, olde moldy rusty wreck of a trailer can get revived with new pt wood, new paint, new tires & wheels, new bearings, new hitch, new lights, new this, new that ...... and make it a usable, legal trailer. Price to buy it - $150, as is. Cost to fix it - $200+.

Yes, blowing or dumping leaves and any other yard waste into the lake is illegal. It is considered fill and requires a permit under RSA 482-A for the NH Department of Environmental Services. if observed please takes photographs of the activity and submit them with a copy of a completed complaint form which can be found at: https://onlineforms.nh.gov/app/#/for...5-5204b86175e7

The address to send them to is listed on the form.

Every year about this time I give the yard a good fall cleaning and I use my leaf blower. It really bothers me when some of the leaves blow in to the lake and I try to not let that happen. I think its just my wanting to do whatever I can to keep lake pristine and not reality. The amount of leaves that make there way into the lake naturally has to be in the billions. This nice weather gave me a day with no wind so not many leaves ended up in lake at yesterdays cleanup.

https://www.seacoastonline.com/news/...-near-wetlands


RSA 482-A:3 Excavating and Dredging Permit; Certain Exemptions. –
I. (a) No person shall excavate, remove, fill, dredge, or construct any structures in or on any bank, flat, marsh, or swamp in and adjacent to any waters of the state without a permit from the department. Unless otherwise specified in rules adopted by the commissioner pursuant to RSA 482-A:11, any person seeking to obtain a permit shall submit to the department:


http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/rsa/...-A/482-A-3.htm

Make "Duff"
 

If you plant blueberries, or just let the leavers and pine needles accumulate, in a few years, you will have a nice layer of duff that acts like a sponge to collect storm water before it runs into the lake. No fertilizer needed and you can eat the blueberries. And blueberries don't attract Canadian Geese. Killing two birds as it were.

In the spring....
 

I rake all the leaves out of the water to as deep as I am able to go with about a 5' handle. I've noticed that the leaves that become encased in mud, other leaves, etc. don't decompose very quickly. I think crayfish also prefer a sandy bottom and the leaves don't help that population at all.

Almost as bad as throwing cigarette butts on the ground...The Weirs Beach as an ashtray is sickening to me. Or seeing them floating on the water.

In addition to the reference to RSA 482, there is this, under 485-A:15 -Penalties:

"I. It shall be unlawful for any person to put or place, or cause to be put or placed into a surface water of the state or on the ice over such waters, or on the banks of such waters, any solid waste as defined in RSA 149-M or hazardous waste as defined in RSA 147-A, including but not limited to bottles, glass, crockery, cans, scrap metal, junk, paper, garbage, tires, old automobiles or parts thereof, trees or parts thereof, or similar litter.
II. For any violation of this section any authorized member or agent of the department of environmental services shall order the immediate removal of material involved in the violation, by the person responsible for the material in question.
III. If the person or persons responsible for a violation of paragraph I refuse or fail to obey the order of any authorized member or agent of the department of environmental services, the department of environmental services or authorized member or agency may contract for the removal of the material in question and the cost of the removal shall be recoverable by the state in an action of debt brought by the attorney general in the name of the state.
IV. Any person who recklessly violates paragraph I shall be guilty of a misdemeanor if a natural person, or guilty of a felony if any other person.
V. Any person who purposely or knowingly violates paragraph I shall be guilty of a class B felony."

There also is this, under. 149-M:4 VI

"Disposal" means the discharge, deposit, injection, dumping, spilling, leaking, or placing of any solid waste into or onto any land or water with the possible result that such solid waste or any constituent of it may enter the environment, be emitted into the air, or be discharged into any waters, including groundwater."

Twice within the last week, I have heard others telling me of having seen deliberate blowing of leaves into the lake, in both cases done by hired landscaper crews. I am sure that there is great temptation and cost-cutting incentive to blow into the lake when the landscaped portion of a property lacks adjacent wooded terrain onto which to blow the leaves. This is perhaps all the more likely to happen midweek in the fall, when there are fewer people around to observe and object or report.

It likely will take photographs or even cellphone videos for DES to take action. When action can be taken, I hope the state comes down hard on the offenders. In my mind, the economic penalty ought to be much more than the cost of remediation. I wonder if the state has a list of landscaper companies that get regular information from the state. If so, making it known to them that blowing of leaves into the lake by contractors' crews is getting noticed
might carry some weight.

Crayfish actually eat the things that are living on the decaying leaf matter.

I wish those darn trees would stop allowing their leaves to blow in the water!!

Agree. Surprised we lakeside owners are not asked to install netting in the fall to catch those leafs that hang over the water.


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The pine cones and needles must be going in the lake too. Have you ever seen so many and so much pitch?????

Not according to AJ at AJ's Bait Shop. He told me he traps all the crayfish he sells using chicken on a sandy bottom.

What...you didn't get that memo??

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Apparently you've never been on the receiving end of landscapers with leaf blowers clearing a half acre lot of leaves, debris, and dirt into the lake. It's a lot different than naturally falling leaves.

Seems to me in the 60s & 70s, when it seemed just about everyone smoked, people actually used ashtrays. I remember cars with ashtrays full of butts. At some point it became 'acceptable' to toss those butts out the window and, I guess, due to lack of demand, manufacturers stopped providing ashtrays in cars. Regardless, I've never understood the 'toss it on the ground' deal. Not only is it disgusting, but those butts can find their way into waterways through storm sewers and runoff and, yes, then they're floating in the lake. If nothing else, they line our roadways and intersections and who knows if they are harmful to wildlife. What gives?

When you are a smoker the world is your ashtray


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OMG, I was just kidding!!! I rake leaves out of the lake ALL summer! But I honestly can't blame the landscapers right here for it. They are pretty good.

The best leaf rake ever made, in the entire world history of falling leaves, is the $6.99 green 24" rake that you buy at Walmart. It is green plastic/hi-strength vinyl or something, and has a wooden handle. Nothing works better, nothing ....... not too big .... not too small .... is perfect for the local NH trees and NH leaf-raker with good faith intention to rake the yard, clean of all leaves and remove to local transfer station. Is tested and approved by Tom Brady, himself!

A leaf free lawn is a happy and healthy and green lawn!

Absentee Demographics...
 

Your leaves may be floating in from my neighbors' landscapers.

I don't mind that landscapers use my lot to deposit their leaves, since 50 feet on each side is devoted to large stands of "privacy" trees.

I have photographs of leaves being blown into the lake, but at that moment, only a handful are in the air. It's the long trail of leaves floating by that shows landscapers' negative effects to the lake. It's especially bothersome to be treated to gas-powered blowers playing "dueling leafblowers"--paid by absent homeowners.

They should ban leaf blowers! Damn people ruining the shore fronts and causing so much noise with their loud leaf machines!


Those absentee homeowners you apparently hate pay taxes just like you.

I, fairly recently, had a rental car break down on 93 south of exit 20. I had to wait on the side of the road for about 40 mins. for AAA to arrive. The amount of cigarette buts on the edge of the road was mind boggling. I kept asking myself why? It's such a beautiful place. How can one foul it's beauty with this trash...It is trash! I was headed north on 93...I wondered if the same stretch going south would have been the same? Humans can disappoint on so many levels.

My John Deere does a really great job collecting the leaves. What I learned was that I needed to drive at a higher speed than when I mow the grass. Leave the height adjustment at 4 inches. Since the leaves are not chopped it is necessary to stop once and push them down into the hamper. They all go onto my compost piles which actually are just piles with no sides. The shrubbery really loves that stuff.

_________________________________

I am a retired workaholic and continuing aquaholic

Mulching...
 

I have set my lawn mower low and mulched the leaves in place and it seems to make them disappear. Are the long-term effects of this positive or what are the negatives?

Sorry tis, I propose a Three Stooges emoji with "nyuk nyuk" under it, that will set the tone. :)

Good idea. :)

OH....a wise guy!

NO! Do not Mass up NH. Leaf blowers are just as loud as a lawnmower and many boats. Irresponsible people will rake leaves into the lake just as easily of not more so to save the labor.

Illegal Dumping
 

Ok. This forum has established that blowing leaves and debris into the lake is illegal. Now what? How do you educate the public? I'm on an island and have photos of masses of leaves blown into the lake. I'll reach out to the offending homeowners (I don't know them) , perhaps they have no idea what their landscaper does. Filing complaints is for last resorts, IMO. I'm sure it happens quite often around the lake, unfortunately. A quick search found that the state of Missouri has a $10,000 fine for dumping into a lake. The only mention locally was NHLakes, which suggests avoiding such activity.

"I'm on an island"
 

"I'm on an island" and neighbors blow stuff into the lake sounds like a bridged island. There aren't many unbridged islands where camps have lawns or landscapers with leaf blowers. I know of only one place on Welch (one of the larger unabridged islands) where they use leaf blowers and always blow back intop the woods. Cow? Rattlesnake?

I'm really asking if there are any known lake stewardship guidelines that can be shared to educate rather than pinpoint the origin of my complaint.

I think post #4 in this thread answers that.

We do have a lawn, separated from the lake by a perched beach and mulch buffer, and when I rake or blow leaves it's always back into the woods!

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Of Course...
 

When I encountered the operator at Winnipesaukee Aquatherm one spring, I asked, "Why do the little circulator blades break off so often?"

He said it was caused by brush that had been trimmed and thrown into the lake. :rolleye1:

ETA:
Hey, I just noticed...!

Welcome back, and I like your new name...