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Autumn River Trail by Jim Long

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Nothing describes fall better than red, yellow and orange piles of leaves neatly raked in front yards. They harmlessly wait in all their glory for youngsters to jump in. The sweet smell of autumn defines their very existence upon the ground. Ahh, my Hemingway instincts could rhyme throughout the harvest season. But during such a beautiful time of the year, part of me can’t help but wonder where my thousands of brown, crunchy friends go after they’ve been bagged and have sat in solitude at the end of the driveway.

Their mineral richness is wasted if they’re shipped to a land far and away (If you know this land’s Urbanaian coordinates, please let me know so that I can jump in its mound of bliss). Here’s my question to you: Why not save those orange, pumpkin-faced garbage bags, and reuse the leaves in your yard like a makeover compost? Think about it. Leaves are like nutrients for the ground — rich in zinc, iron and copper, just like plant tissue. If you let the leaves clutter up the yard, they will decompose the soil underneath them and voila, you bypass that whole leaf raking concept altogether.

But tradition sometimes trumps an appreciation for glorifying Mother Nature. Luckily for the autumn orthodox, my town Urbana offers four leaf pick-up times for the fall. Not only do city servicemen kindly pick up leaves, they require that the leaves be stashed in paper bags, and NOT the fun, but environmentally-harmful pumpkin-faced ones. If you don’t call Urbana home, drop off your leaf goodie bags at the Landscape Recycling Center (it DOES exist!) in Urbana. It’s like a Goodwill for environmentalists.

If you don’t have a yard wasteland to call your own, find a senior citizen and utilize their leaf opportunity to the fullest. Or if all of this information is just way over your head, find the closest leaf pile and jump in it. Then roll around in it. Then smile.