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Turning a New Leaf on Weed Barrier Methods with Trails & Natural Lands  

Each Autumn, thousands of leaves fall across the Salt Lake City valley. And, while some spend Saturdays neatly piling them across their yards with a rake, others let them live another life on the ground.  

It’s no secret that utilizing your leaves as mulch is an easy way to bring life to your lawn over the cooler months, but there’s so much more in store for this fallen foliage beyond the backyard. This year, excess leaves have been collected and mixed with pine needles by our ecology team to be used as experimental weed barrier in three different locations across Salt Lake City.  

This method, widely utilized in permaculture and organic farming, is a hope for our team to limit the use of plastic weed fabric commonly put down during new plantings. It isn’t a perfect system yet, and due to the nature of our high desert climate, the team has seen this work best in our properties that experience drier days (like the space at Bonneville Boulevard).  

The implementation of this method is still in its infancy. There is a lot to consider when introducing such an influx of organic matter into ecosystems that don’t typically see it. Negative changes in soil are a real possibility here and could do more harm than good for the native plants we’re trying to protect. Our team is monitoring these small test plots closely and documenting changes for next season.  

The bottom line? Keeping invasive weeds at bay for the survival of our native vegetation is the goal. Our team does not employ herbicide in our natural areas and so weed fabric has been most effective in the past. However, we’re aware of the environmental impacts of plastic, so we’re looking forward to change. The progression towards a more natural method is in the works and we’re excited to share this project with you!  

Three cheers for our ecologists, trails and natural lands team, and the trees of SLC for coming together to create something better for us and our planet.