LETTER TO MARBLEHEAD EDITOR: Birds, Birders, and Gas-powered Leaf Blowers

Wicked Local

 A Marblehead Decision

Birding is meant to be a quiet, unobtrusive, outdoor experience emphasizing enjoyment of nature and living things, particularly birds.

Birders look forward to spring, when migrating warblers arrive after flying hundreds or thousands of miles from their wintering grounds in Central and South America. These beautiful “feathered jewels” are not always easy to see: they are constantly flitting and dodging behind the sprouting leaves of trees, bushes and undergrowth searching for newly emerged insects. But birders are prepared for this! Part of the birding fun is testing our ability to recognize each of the huge variety of birds by their specific calls and songs. We are bird listeners, not just bird watchers. It’s a challenging and rewarding aspect of our long-anticipated joy of spring birding.

What better place to test these birding skills than Marblehead’s own Audubon Reservation on the Neck. It was created specifically for birders, as it attracts thousands of migrating birds that “drop-in” for a brief, much-needed rest and food before relaunching their northward trek. It also attracts hundreds of enthusiastic birders from all over Massachusetts and beyond.  Many times their visits based on weather conditions, particularly wind directions, in the hopes of experiencing a “fallout” of migrants, and maybe seeing or hearing many dozens of species.

Unfortunately, this opportune meeting of birds and birders is often ruined by the incessant din of gas-powered leaf blowers which easily drown out the sounds of the birds. Birders are left frustrated and annoyed. They wonder why the citizens of Marblehead allow this to happen. After all, Marblehead realtors publicize proximity to the Reservation when promoting local properties. It implies a quiet, peaceful location. Imagine visiting a long-anticipated exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts or a lecture at the Boston Public Library only to be repeatedly distracted by the sounds of power tools and hammering as workers repaired some non-urgent, cosmetic structure in the next room!

Perhaps, local homeowners are unaware of the disruption caused by the leaf blowers, and maybe the commercial landscapers have no idea they are interfering with and annoying so many visitors to the Reservation.

Hopefully, the Town is now aware how real this problem is. I urge Marbleheaders to support Article 47 at the May 3rd Town Meeting: It will limit the use of gas-powered leaf blowers by commercial landscapers from the day after Labor Day until the day before Memorial Day, Monday through Saturday 7 am-5 pm.

The spring migration of birds to the Reservation starts in early April and builds up to a peak in mid-May: So, for the sake of our own Marblehead birders and the hundreds of out-of-town birders, restricting gas-powered leaf blowers in mid-April, or by May 1st at the latest, would be more appropriate than the Memorial Day start. I’m hoping Article 47 passes, and that at the following Town Meeting we can modify the starting date.

As an environmentalist and former organic farmer, if I had my druthers I’d vote to ban gas-powered leaf blowers year-round in an attempt to generate a complete shift to electric leaf blowers. I love that battery-powered leaf blowers are so much cheaper and more efficient to run than gas-powered, and that they are quieter, safer, and far less polluting. In the many enlightened towns where they have been banned, the commercial landscapers simply switched to lighter, quieter battery-powered blowers. Nobody lost their jobs, but the workers were undoubtedly safer and healthier after the switch - and so were the homeowners!


--Alfred Wilson, III, Pleasant Street