Fall cleanup and leaf removal in Cape Elizabeth, Maine.
Oaks and maples make up most of Cape Elizabeth's public tree inventory, according to the 2019 Comprehensive Plan, which singles out Fowler Road, Old Ocean House Road and the Oakhurst neighborhood for their canopies and notes two oak preserves in Fort Williams Park. Private yards under the same canopy collect a heavy fall of oak leaves, which break down slowly and mat on turf when left through winter.
A fall cleanup on the Cape means leaves raked and blown off the lawn and out of the beds, spent perennials cut back, a final mow of the season, and the debris hauled away.
Where leaf litter is required to stay
One part of some Cape Elizabeth lots should not be raked clean. Within the shoreland buffer strip, 75 feet from most water bodies and tributary streams and 100 feet from the upland edge of a Resource Protection 1 wetland, the zoning ordinance states that vegetation under three feet, ground cover, leaf litter and the forest duff layer shall not be cut, covered or removed except for a footpath or other permitted use. On waterfront and wetland-edge lots, the cleanup stops at that line.
In the Great Pond watershed the ordinance also calls for vegetated buffer strips at least 25 feet wide along waterways, drainage ditches, ponds and swales, and encourages owners to keep them in a natural state.
Keeping blown leaves out of those ditches and swales matters for the same reason the overlay exists: the town created it to limit nutrient runoff such as phosphorus into Great Pond, and a swale choked with leaves is a slow source of exactly that.
Recycling Center rules and winter moth season
Residents can bring leaves and grass clippings to the town Recycling Center, where compostable material must be emptied out of plastic bags; the town asks for biodegradable bags instead. Brush and wood waste go to a separate area under the fee schedule, and stumps are not accepted. The center takes up to the equivalent of two pickup loads a day of separated brush and wood, so a large property's fall debris may need more than one trip; hauling it with the leaves avoids that.
Public Works tree alerts also ask residents to watch for winter moth flying around porch lights in late November, and to switch those lights off. Winter moth has damaged many mature Cape Elizabeth oaks over the past decade, so a late-season visit is a useful time to note which trees leafed out thin the previous spring.
Fall Lawn Care · Leaves · Final Mow
How we handle fall cleanup & leaf removal
Oak and maple leaves left on a Maine lawn all winter kill grass in patches. We rake and blow leaves off turf and out of beds, cut back spent perennials, do the last mow of the season and haul the debris.
See the full fall cleanup & leaf removal service page or everything we do in Cape Elizabeth, Maine.
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Mon–Sat 7:00am – 5:00pm · Based in Cumberland, Maine