Ah, summer. The sound of birds singing in the morning. The roar of the lawn mowers. The buzz of the cicadas in the trees. The cacophony of the grass edgers.
     Wait a minute. Whatever happened to quiet summers? Why are we putting up with all this noise. Few things demolish the serenity of a summer day like the 70-decibel scream of a gas-fed leaf blower.
     Some 60 million of us now live in homeowner associations that contract with landscape maintenance companies that regularly disturb our peace, a cavalry astride giant mowers that invade our territory weekly, followed by an infantry of backpack engines that whack weeds and trim hedges. We are forced to seal ourselves in from the glorious weather to avoid the noise and the stink of unfiltered spent gasoline polluting the air.
     Since lawnmowers, hedge trimmers and leaf blowers are powered by two-cycle gas engines, which run on a mixture of gas and oil, 30% of that mixture is released directly into the air and a half-hour operation of one of them releases as many emissions as a sedan traveling 2200 miles. The worst offenders are the high-powered leaf blowers which not only create an infernal racket but also affect air quality by the particulate matter which they stir up, including dust, fecal matter, fungi, chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Some communities have banned gas-powered leaf blowers for these reasons.
Whatever happened to teenage gardeners?      Time was when they earned money during the summer to help pay for their own expenses. Yet it was estimated that only 1/3rd of 16-19 year olds had summer jobs in 2008. A troubled economy is somewhat to blame, but “most affluent college students simply refuse to spend the summer” working, according to The Week magazine.
     When yet another bucolic Wednesday was shattered last week by the usual din, I had an epiphany. What if some of those teenagers floundering at the lakes or the beaches across America were to rise up and do something to mitigate the staggering college debt that otherwise awaits their future? They could pool their pizza money and buy manual lawn mowers, hedge clippers, edgers and rakes and next summer offer your community a silent, pollution-free gardening service, as in days of old. They would become entrepreneurs, learn to operate a business, and put their showboating pick-up trucks to use actually picking up stuff. I would hire them in an instant.
     It was a quaint reverie that for a moment pictured Americans doing work in a way that immigrants are unwilling to do, but then it was gone.
     That’s a prescription for the 30 million acres of lawn in the U.S., but then there are…
Those other lawns: Our golf courses      Well-manicured golf courses consume an inordinate amount of water, particularly in the dry western states, as well as large amounts of fossil fuels to mow, fertilize and eliminate pests, while their equipment spews tons of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere.
     But an initiative by the Audubon Society, for the protection of birds as you might expect, has much broader benefits. Golf courses are asked to convert their out-of-play and shoreline surfaces to wildlife habitat by discontinuing watering, mowing, pesticide use and fertilizing. Manufacture of that last category is by one of the largest CO2 emitting industries; the benefits of discontinuing the others should be self-evident.
     It takes one to three years to make the conversion and win Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program accreditation. Of the 516 clubs that have adopted these measures, the average course returns 22 acres to nature. A short Newsweek mention says that 99 percent of club managers report no degradation of playing quality. And the next time your ball finds the water, rather than flinging your club to join it, you might be pacified by birdsong.
     With over 12,000 golf courses still to go in the U.S., chances are yours may not have looked into this program. If not, talk it up, work up a petition among members, and make it happen. As a money-saver, it should make an easy sale. Next thing you know, they may elect you club president.
- Stephen Wilson & Tony White