Excessive use of leaf blowers threatens nature reserve
Private landowners and garden companies are negatively impacting wildlife and plant life around a nature reserve due to the excessive use of leaf blowers. Bentley Priory, an SSSI-designated nature reserve in Stanmore, Harrow, is home to a wide range of species, including rabbits, cattle, deer, woodpeckers, tawny owls, and hawfinches.
The longer leaf blowing is allowed to continue, the worse impacts these animals are likely to suffer in the long term. What’s more, residents are left at the mercy of the constant noise produced by the leaf blowers, causing physiological and mental distress.
Leaf blowers emit a range of pollutants including carbon monoxide, nitrous oxides, and carcinogenic hydrocarbons, amounting to almost 300 times the number of pollutants emitted by a pickup truck.
Furthermore, according to the World Health Organization, noise pollution is responsible for https://www.who.int/docstore/peh/noise/Comnoise-1.pdf”>a range of adverse health effects, including hearing impairment, poor sleep quality, mental health issues, and a range of chronic illnesses such as hypertension and heart disease. Given the fact that leaf blowers produce up to 90 decibels of noise, the unchecked activities around Bentley Priory represent a serious threat to wildlife and residents.
According to Sonia Rosenblatt: “We're looking down the barrel of an environmental crisis. Businesses, conservation groups and local authorities need to do more – a lot more – to protect nature, rather than put commercial interests first. It's unconscionable in light of the worrying facts presented at COP26 that the use of leaf blowers continues unchecked."
“To make matters worse, The Harrow Nature Conservation Forum, which manages Bentley Priory, is unwilling to address this issue and continues to ignore my emails. The residents’ association of the street primarily responsible for leaf-blowing activity also ignores my emails. The daily onslaught of noise from leaf blowers means I have to leave home to work in peace."
Responding to these charges, Natural England issued a statement claiming they “do not have any control over activities being undertaken by landowners outside of SSSI boundaries unless they are directly affecting the notified features of the SSSI.”
Meanwhile, Harrow Council “does not deem the times and durations of leaf blowing to be unreasonable and is therefore not taking any action against any one organisation or individual.”
Editor’s notes
To find out more about this issue and for further comment, contact Sonia Rosenblatt at 07593 107248 or at sonia@savvyseo.co.uk .