From Robert Whitcomb’s “Digital Diary,’’ in GoLocal24.com

Spring and fall are of course the prime seasons for leaf blowers in New England. The gasoline-fueled blowers are monsters, creating explosions of sound and copious pollution and dust. They make life miserable for humans and other animals for blocks around, often for hours at a time, creating dead zones. Some homeowners wield them  but those “landscaping’’ firms staffed by our friends from South of the Border, many of them not wearing  ear and face protection from the shrieking noise and  toxic fumes, are responsible for the lion’s share of the devastation. And some of the leaves end up in the street or in someone else’s property.

Time to ban gasoline-powered leaf blowers; electric ones are much quieter. Then there’s that handy tool called the rake. More reasons to reduce the size of lawns and replace them with much more ecologically friendly ground cover.