Island's Leaf Removal Efforts No Small Task
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Crews in charge of clearing the leaves that fall on Staten Island's parks say it's no easy task, especially when it comes to getting rid of them. NY1's Amanda Farinacci filed the following report.Think you've got a lot of leaves in your backyard? Try piling up the leaves collected from the 28,000 acres of park land all over Staten Island.
The Parks Department expects to collect a small mountain's worth by the time the leaves are done falling. They're then brought to Clove Lakes Park to get ready for composting.
"What we're doing, composting here, is kind of managing a natural process," said Deputy Parks Commissioner Tom Russo.
That natural process is the breaking down of leaves into a material that will eventually look like dirt -- a top soil that's nutrient rich and can be used during planting season as top soil and fertilizer.
The process begins as soon as the leaves start to fall. Park workers begin to clear leaves from walking paths and formal gathering areas like fields, dumping them into bins. Leaves that fall in a natural areas are blown into the woodlands so they can compost naturally.
When the bins are full, they're brought to Cloves Lake Park and added to the pile. Every few days the leaves are turned over to control the internal temperature of the pile.
"If you don't turn it, that's where the digestion process will generate too much heat and kill off the beneficial microbes that are doing the digestion and eliminate a lot of the nutrients by baking it," Russo said. "So we want to keep the temperature just right, about 150 degrees, by turning it, adding air and cooling things down."
The Department of Sanitation used to do a special collection for residential leaf removal but that service was cancelled because of budget cuts. Still, there are some options for residents wondering what to do with their leaves.
"You can buy composting bins at Home Depot or at Lowes or any home improvement place, but also you can learn online how to build them yourself and it's actually quite easy and it's a great way to be sustainable in your own home," said Staten Island Parks Commissioner Adena Long.
For more information on how to compost, visit nyccompost.org.