The fall colours have been amazing this year – even better when you can enjoy them at the cottage! But as the leaves drop along with the temperature, many of us feel compelled to grab our rakes or leaf blowers to deal with the “mess”. Here’s some advice before doing either…

First, consider not raking at all! Letting Mother Nature deal with your leaves is actually the best option for the environment. Take a quick look at this short article from Cottage Life for three excuses not to rake leaves this year.

If you still insist on raking or blowing, then please DO NOT dump leaves into the lake or along the shoreline! The natural amount of leaves that find their way into the lake is fine, but a concentrated amount from unnatural human activity can have seriously negative impacts on our lake health. Take a moment to read this article to understand the bad effect this can have.