Gas-powered leaf blowers may be on the chopping block Island-wide, as conservationists are working with town officials, concerned residents, and businesses on a ban.
The Vineyard Conservation Society is coordinating an effort to get a proposal before voters at all six town meeting warrants in the spring to phase out the loud blowers. The nonprofit cites concerns over noise and air pollution, as well as an opportunity to lower fossil-fuel emissions and protect workers’ health.
Sam Look, the society’s executive director, pitched the plan to the West Tisbury select board on Thursday. She showed the board regulations proposed so far in Chilmark, Edgartown, and Oak Bluffs, and a proposed warrant article that could work in West Tisbury. Look is hopeful that voters in all towns will see identical articles.
The proposals so far generally involve police-enforced restrictions, with both gas- and electric- blowers allowed from 8 am to 5 pm on weekdays, and 10 am to 5 pm on Saturdays. Leaf blowers would be banned on Sundays and certain holidays, and no more than two blowers would be allowed to be used at the same time on a property.
Gas blowers would eventually be phased out under the proposal, no longer allowed starting in spring 2028. Before then, they would be allowed from March 15 to May 31, and Sept. 15 through Dec. 15.
This three-year period is to allow businesses time to absorb the cost of switching to electric blowers, and adjust their operations.
Proposed fines for violators would range from $100 to $300, though exemptions would be allowed for town use amid severe weather events.
Look told The Times that the conservation society has been meeting regularly with town energy and climate committees, as well as concerned citizens and businesses since the fall, and that Tisbury, Oak Bluffs, Edgartown, and Chilmark are actively involved. The society met with Aquinnah just before the holiday break, she added.
An Island-wide ban, she said, would be simpler for businesses than having unique policies across towns.
Look said that more and more Vineyarders have become interested in the regulation, and noted that a ban garnered a lengthy discussion at Edgartown’s last annual town meeting in April. That proposal to ban gas blowers failed narrowly, after a lengthy discussion; a 94–89 vote in favor failed to meet a required two-thirds threshold.
Voters in the meeting complained of air and noise pollution, and the frequency of leaf-blowing crews in residential areas. But some landscapers spoke against a ban, concerned about the cost of switching to electric blowers.
Some businesses have written to the conservation society supporting a ban, Look told The Times, in part to protect their workers against inhaling fumes and hearing damage.
The society provided an information sheet at Thursday’s board meeting that includes a quote from Avant Gardner owner and operator Ryan J. White. “We at the Avant Gardener have been at the forefront of the battery equipment movement, and have been using Stihl lithium-ion technology as our choice power plant during the summer months for over five years, and have been very pleased with the results. Our employees and clients alike feel very strongly that this is the right direction for our industry and community,” the sheet reads.
Lowering fossil-fuel emissions is another benefit, Look told the select board on Thursday. “A big impetus behind this, aside from a quieter community, is [that] the emissions from this sort of equipment are significant,” she said. “Stacked up against driving a car, it’s unbelievable.”
At the Thursday meeting, board chair Jessica Miller and vice chair Cynthia Mitchell supported putting a version of a ban on the West Tisbury town meeting warrant. The board plans to review the proposal, and expects to add a warrant article on the ban
During Look’s presentation, board member Skipper Manter questioned restricting homeowners’ use on weekends and during the summer, and whether only towns should be allowed an extreme-weather exemption.
“I certainly think [a ban] should apply to your landscapers and commercial contractors,” he said. “But for somebody that wants to do their work on the weekend, and they have a gas-powered blower, I don’t know why they couldn’t use that.”
Speaking to The Times, Look hoped that voters will approve bans in their towns this year. “I would just really urge the community to remember how recently it was that leaf blowers weren’t as ubiquitous as they are now. In the fall, if you go outside, it is so hard not to hear one. That has, I think, real implications for our quality of life that go much deeper than a leaf-free or grass-free yard,” she said.
The West Tisbury select board’s Thursday meeting can be viewed in full at bit.ly/WTSB_LeafBlowerMeeting, with the passcode A03QAD5*.