12/5/2025: Submit comments now on draft rules for enforcing gas leaf blower ban (due: 12/14/2025)
The proposed administrative rules for enforcing Portland’s leaf blower ban are far too weak and confusing (see our concerns below). The City needs to hear from you – the more comments the better, so add your voice!
- Read our concerns.
- See details on submitting a comment.
- Read the law & penalties these rules are intended to enforce.
8/20/2025: Gas leaf blower ban starts Jan. 1, 2026
Help get the word out! Visit our Take Action page for ways to spread the word. Questions? Contact info@qcpdx.org.
3/15/2024: We did it! Portland eliminates gas leaf blowers!
On March 13, 2024, Portland City Council unanimously approved Ordinance 191653 phasing out the use of gas-powered leaf blowers citywide:
- In 2026 and 2027 the devices will only be allowed in the fall, October through December.
- Starting January 1, 2028, gas leaf blowers will be prohibited year-round.
Huge thanks to everyone who helped achieve this victory. Continued support is crucial in ensuring its success. Visit our Take Action page for ways you can help; and subscribe to the QCPDX newsletter for updates. To learn more: (a) see the actual code; and (b) visit our Legislation page.
Gas-powered leaf blowers are hazardous to your health!
EXTREME NOISE: Their exceptionally loud noise disrupts community peace and contributes to hearing loss, hypertension, and stress. The noise has a sizeable low-frequency component that penetrates further and affects more people than other sounds at the same decibel level.
DANGEROUS EMISSIONS: Their highly polluting engines emit unburned carcinogens, toxins and fine particulates that increase one’s risk of getting cancer, lung disease, heart disease, dementia, and other serious health conditions.
ENVIRONMENTAL DISRUPTION: Their smog-forming emissions, toxic waste (from spills and discarded equipment), and hurricane-force winds damage soils, destroy ecosystems, and contribute to the climate crisis, directly and indirectly impacting human health.
Please join us in eliminating gas-powered leaf blowers and making our neighborhoods quieter and healthier! Find out more below.
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The Aggressive Ways of the Casual Leaf Blower
“Clean up,” they say, filling the air
with dirt and exhaust. As if
you can more quickly rake in cash
by blowing it into the street.
With all the force — and foresight —
of a tornado. Such logic
flies in everyone’s face, yet passes
for rational self-interest. How
so many ignore it, I don’t know.
It screams out to be heard
from blocks away, even with
the windows closed. And the stereo on.
Verse thanks to Jennifer Martenson