Take time to enjoy the last few months of fall at CSB+SJU

While many of us may not have our own yards here at school, we can still take part in the nostalgic act of jumping into a perfectly curated pile of leaves. And no, if you are questioning whether college students are too old to participate in this endeavor, no, we are not.

Whether you are a first-time leaf jumper or a seasoned veteran, raking these fallen wonders into an obscenely huge pile is an ode to the beautifully delicate life cycle trees present us with and is an experience like no other.

This activity has become commonplace in many households and is usually coupled with seasonal yard work. Though this scene typically involves an intimate group and is one of the most thrilling fall-time experiences a child can encounter, once playtime is over, the grownups rake those leaves into plastic yard waste bags and take them to the dump or compost.

Though this may seem intuitive—especially if you’re taking them to your local compost site—removing the leaves from your yard takes away a large source of nutrients for the ecosystem around you. Whether you think you’re helping Mother Nature “take care of business” by cleaning up your greenspaces or just like a clean slate of grass to stare at as it withers and gets covered with snow, your actions hurt the inhabitants of your lawn by completely eliminating an element in the wintering process of the environment you live in.

This environment depends on you to do your part just as much as you are dependent on it to sustain you. Similarly, birds and other small critters like squirrels use this fallen foliage to create homes for their young or reinforce the homes they have already fostered.

As life becomes more microscopic, it can be harder to conceptualize who uses, revitalizes and produces the life that surrounds us, starting below our feet. Bacteria that compose and compost the soil we build our lives upon love and live for the nutrients found in the decomposition of the animal and plant matter we see as blocking our pristine plots of land during the last of the “warm months.”

If leaving the leaves in your yard is out of the question, consider spreading them around the bases of your trees and gardens. The leaves will act as a natural insulator for the soil life beneath them; you can think of it like winter-time mulching.

It’s understandably difficult to leave something that will inevitably turn brown and mushy on your lawn, yet with a few small changes in mindset (and some potential shifts of ideals), the leaves don’t have to detract from your fall experience—they might just enhance the beauty of the place you call home.

This fall season, I urge you to immerse yourself in the privilege of a Collegeville autumn, and enjoy all the wonders the falling leaves give us. Connecting with nature in a mindful way helps us better understand the world we live in and the effect our actions have on other forms of life. Even the most microscopic bacteria live in community with us as we get to experience our changing seasons, so the least we can do is give back to them by leaving the leaves.