Fall leaf collection in Bozeman’s neighborhoods and downtown starts

Bozeman, Montana – Fall leaf collecting in the downtown core area started this week as the temperature dropped and fall began to transition into winter cold.

This week, as they begin collection, the city might ask you to move your automobile. Because the leaves on the south side of town normally drop more quickly than those on the north, workers begin there.

On different days, workers arrive on different streets and work on separate sides of the street, and the same is true for the city’s subdivisions.

You can rake your leaves to your curb if you reside in the central business district and would like the city to take them up. The leaves are blown into the road by workers, who then gather them. In subdivisions, the request is for people to place their leaves outside for pickup by 7 a.m. on the day of collection in open or compostable plastic bags.

The city must wait until the leaves have dried off if they are moist, and snow and rain have an effect on pickup.

Collected leaves are transported to Gallatin Waste Management’s Bozeman Convenience Site, where they are composted, according to Bozeman Street Superintendent John Van Delinder.

“We’re just glad to get rid of it because it’s… we can fill that whole area up, you know, every time we pick up anywhere, we picked up as many as 900 tons of leaves in a season, usually in the 5 to 700, especially if it doesn’t snow or rain where they get wet. But we do we do a lot of leaves.”

The city does have an intriguing collection system, even though it is not completely operational yet. They bought a farming bailer a few years ago, and it goes up and down the streets bailing leaves like hay, which makes them easier to transport and cuts down on the number of trips vehicles need to make. Construction trunks gather leaves and load them into garbage trucks till it is operational.