In the hills of coastal Connecticut River Valley, it’s leaf season. Peaceful residents wake to the drone of a fleet of backpack blowers tidying nature’s winter blanket and the home to many species of insect. Leaves are piled and collected and eventually disposed of at transfer stations (quite often at a fee).
Leaf season is an opportunity for us all to contribute to the health of Connecticut’s agricultural soils and the planet’s health, by making some unconventional, systematic choices. The best decision land managers can make is to leave leaves where they fall, as nature intended, providing habitat to burrowing species of bees and organic matter as a soil building amendment.
Sometimes leaves fall in places that cause them to be a danger, such as on driveways, roads and sidewalks. For these leaves, collection makes sense, and the next stop in those leaves lives can be more or less sustainable, like every decision. One way of sustainably repurposing leaves is by using them for compost. Compost and organic mulches add organic matter to agriculture soils, which sequester carbon in the soil. Healthy agricultural soils are more productive, hold and infiltrate excessive rainfall better and contribute to the mitigation of climate change.
Statewide, regulation of leaf composting falls on DEEP, and DEEP and the state Department of Agriculture should coordinate to connect farmers and leaf collectors. As a state, Connecticut has a prerogative to divert food scraps from the waste stream and these ingredients, when combined with farm materials like animal manure and vegetable scraps, can create high quality, low carbon food print soil amendments, saving farmers money and improving the health of Connecticut’s agricultural soils. This is especially valuable in 2026 because fertilizer prices are continuing to rise, partially due to market consolidation and also due to international conflict. Why buy fertilizers from abroad when making compost can build a local system for recycling nutrients?
Connecticut needs clearer and easier permitting processes for farmers who want to compost locally available feedstocks (ingredients) like leaves. State legislators should develop and support mandatory organics recycling laws, while funding and tasking the state Department of Agriculture with improving on-farm composting knowledge and infrastructure. Composting of farm and locally available materials to make soil amendments should be specifically mentioned in an updated state definition of agriculture, which helps protect the right to farm.
Farms are a natural fit for composting – they already have in place much of the infrastructure necessary for operating a composting facility, often having enough land and a loader tractor for turning compost. They generate other feedstocks (diversity is key – like most things) and have an end use purpose for compost, as a soil health and nutrient building amendment.
Leaf composting keeps soil carbon (organic matter) where it belongs, in the soil, not in the atmosphere. Recycling leaves into compost is a climate smart practice; contributing both to the mitigation of climate change through sequestration of carbon and to the adaptation of farm soils to the impacts of climate change through building healthier soils that infiltrate water better. Vigorous and healthy roots grow in carbon rich soil, creating capillaries for infiltration, rather than having water runoff the surface of soil. Rainfall stores better in organic matter-rich topsoils for future plant growth, creating better drought resistance and plant growth.
Every person can contribute to a healthier planet and garden by using your leaves on site in your garden or compost, and if you don’t have access to a yard, support farmers who do use regenerative practices by buying their products and even recycling food scraps with a farmer. Voluntarily composting your food scraps prevents CO2 and methane emissions from your food scraps ending up in a landfill. Each person can contribute to a healthy planet with every meal.
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Baylee Drown is a 5th generation farmer practicing sustainable agriculture at Long Table Farm in Lyme, Connecticut. The farm is open to the public every Saturday until December 12th.
Baylee teaches fellow farmers about climate smart practices through UConn’s Solid Ground Climate Smart Adaptations course, CTRC&Ds Agricultural Composting Program and future farmers in Connecticut College’s Sustainable Agriculture course. Our farm composting program has been supported by grants from the Connecticut Department of Agriculture through CTRC&D.
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