A LEAFY LEGACY

Leaves are piling up like never before in Coeur d’Alene.

Leaf pick-up crews in Coeur d’Alene this year are expected to collect about 1,900 tons of foliage from city streets, nearly 25 percent more than the average of about 1,400 to 1,500 tons typically collected during the annual leaf pick-up program.

“We are well above normal,” city streets and engineering director Tim Martin said Thursday.

Martin attributed the increased volume to maturing trees in large neighborhoods developed many years ago.

“As the trees continue to grow, we’re certainly seeing more leaves in neighborhoods like Coeur d’Alene Place and the Northshire subdivision,” Martin said. “Those are areas where historically we never spent a lot of time. We’re spending half a day out there now.”

As of Thursday, crews had hauled 600 dump truck loads of leaves to a site near the Coeur d’Alene Airport where they will be shredded and composted. For the past four years, the compost has been spread on a 16-acre tract at the airport.

Martin said the compost is being used as fill to replace dirt previously hauled from that site to the Silver Valley as part of the Superfund site remediation.

“I’d say we’ve created 10 or 11 inches of topsoil over the last few years,” he said.

While loaders and dump trucks are working their way swiftly through neighborhoods, Martin said the street sweepers that complete the clean-up lag behind.

“I don’t believe people understand that we only have three sweepers and they can’t possibly keep up with the pickup crews,” he said. “They’re usually a day and a half to two days behind — but they’ll get there.”

To expedite pickup, the city has enacted a resolution allowing crews to transport loads uncovered during the three-week pickup. The same policy applies to residents. While the process has gone smoothly this year, a little more moisture would have helped minimize blowing leaves, Martin said. The first half of November was the driest on record in Coeur d’Alene, climatologist Cliff Harris said.

Martin said the annual leaf pickup event is a balancing act. Crews must wait until most of the leaves have fallen, while working to complete the citywide sweep before the first major snowfall.

“In my 33 years with the city, I can only remember two times that we had to push leaves back into yards due to snowfall and come back in the spring and do an abbreviated pickup,” he said. The last time that happened was in the mid-1990s.

Martin said pickup is expected to be complete on Monday.

Good thing. Harris is forecasting what could develop into a significant winter storm hitting the area Tuesday.