Did you know raking your leaves into the street is illegal in Vancouver?

For most of the year, Vancouverites are in love with the trees that line city streets: the spring blossoms, the summer shade, the fantastic autumn colours. 

But, as November rolls around, fond feelings turn to curse words as soggy piles of brown leaves grow exponentially, launching the yardwork-spin cycle of raking, blowing and bagging.

Some lawn louts have been known to lighten their leaf load by raking the whole mess into the street, but, to those people, the City of Vancouver has a message: not only is the practice dangerous, it's illegal.

Street and Traffic Bylaw, Section 84, states "no person shall deposit upon any street or other public place, any rubbish, sweepings, leaves ..." which makes leaf dumping a finable offence.

But has the city ever ticketed a leaf scofflaw?

"No we haven't," said Albert Shamess, Vancouver's director of waste management. "We have to catch people in the act, and we haven't issued any fines on that."

Shamess says extra leaves in the streets cause serious problems, especially when rain washes them into catch basins which in turn causes flooding.

He says cleaning up the leaves on your property, even the ones that fall in the street, is simply a matter of being a good neighbour.  

"Really, our request is for people to handle them in a fashion that doesn't create a problem in other parts of the system. What we would prefer is that people rake them up and put them in bags."

Along with the green bin collection, most of Metro Vancouver offers unlimited leaf pickup at designated times, providing they're in biodegradable paper bags.

In mid-November the city will start sending out the heavy artillery —  street sweepers to most neighbourhoods, as well as front end loaders and dump trucks to areas of the city with the highest volumes of street leaves.

"No parking" signs are put up in advance to warn people not to leave their vehicle on the street the day of leaf clearing.

In the past, the city has issued warning tickets to those drivers who don't pay attention to the signs, but this year they will be handing out $100 fines.

"We will be issuing formal tickets with a charge this year, as opposed to the warning tickets for the last two years. So, I think people should be aware," said Shamess. 

Leaves collected by the City of Vancouver go to the composting program at the Delta Landfill and eventually end up as compost on local farmers' fields.