My daughter’s Cub Scout troop learned about climate change the hard way this November. They headed out for their annual leaf-raking service project, ready to help their neighbors bag up their abundant leaves — only to find that most houses had no leaves yet to rake. The trees were still holding on despite the calendar saying it was time to fall.
A few weeks later, we were hit with the highest single-day snowfall ever recorded in November. Eight inches buried whatever leaves had finally dropped. More snow followed in early December, right as Oak Park’s leaf pickup program ended — as scheduled.
The result? What Ken Trainor coined as “leaf dreck”: the muddy leaf mush now matted in our gutters and clogging our curb cuts [No thank you very mulch, Viewpoints, Jan. 14]. Based on a recent flurry of letters to the editor, many residents think the solution is simple: bring back the glory days of raking leaves into the street.
But that misses what really caused our dreck-filled streets. Climate change created a perfect storm — warming fall temperatures delayed leaf drop by weeks, while record snowfall hit Oak Park in late November. Leaf pickup didn’t stand a chance.
This leaf dreck is more than just ugly. When rain washes through decomposing leaves, it creates a “nutrient tea” that flows straight into our storm drains, polluting local waterways. Matted leaves clog storm drains, contributing to the kind of flooding we experienced during early January’s “biblical deluge” (there’s that pesky climate again!). And wet leaves on streets and sidewalks are as slippery as ice — a genuine hazard for cyclists and pedestrians.
In reality, neither the old street/raking system nor the current bagging system can handle what climate change is throwing at us. When leaves are still on trees in November and then get buried by record snowfall, no collection method works. We’re trying to force predictable systems onto an increasingly unpredictable climate.
It’s time for a fresh look at exactly why we collect leaves each fall. We talk about aesthetics, safety and environmental sustainability, but what’s really been missing is any serious reckoning with how climate change undermines our ability to deliver on these priorities. We need a system designed for flexibility and extreme weather, one that can adapt when nature doesn’t follow our October-to-December timeline.
Oak Park is due to rebid our waste management contract soon, including leaf pickup. Perhaps this is our opportunity to rethink the entire approach: not just how we collect leaves, but what we’re trying to accomplish and how climate change affects our ability to get there. What creative solutions might emerge if we stopped trying to force a 1990s-era system to work in a 2026 climate?
We’re way past debating bagging versus raking. Climate change has made that conversation obsolete. It’s time to reimagine how we provide this service and free up space in the Wednesday Journal for more valuable debates.
Has anyone heard about this new pool?