Picture yourself venturing into a Mt. Lebanon park to hike or play. As you approach, you see that someone has dumped yard waste at the edge of the park. There’s a heap of moldering grass clippings, random branches, a pile of leaves, wilting plants and looping vines.

This is not the welcome you hoped for.

Most people who enjoy our parks know intuitively that yard waste dumping is not OK. And, in fact, very few residents do it.

Unfortunately, some see the edge of the woods as a convenient place to get rid of their yard waste, or may even think they’re letting things go back to nature. But those who dump are creating outsized problems for the ecosystem and are hampering the enjoyment of others.

Dumping anything on municipal property ­— including yard waste into the parks — is illegal. Dumpers risk citation from the municipality. If anyone needs a very basic reason not to do it, that is it.

However, there are other reasons that we hope are even more persuasive.  “It is really common sense,” said Rudy Sukal, director of the Department of Public Works. “There should be no dumping in the parks, period, full stop. It spreads invasive plants, it’s unsightly and it runs counter to everything we’re trying to accomplish.”

Dumping introduces invasive plants into the parks. If you see English ivy, burning bush or day lilies, you’re seeing aggressive plants that came from yards and are now crowding out native species. Many originated from dump piles.

Dumping harms the soils. A dump pile is an anaerobic dead zone, sometimes laced with fertilizers and herbicides that can leach into streams and kill wildlife downstream.

Dumping creates a lot of work for other people. Municipal staff members and community volunteers need to remediate these areas and deal with the encroaching invasive plants. This takes years of hard work, made more difficult when additional problem plants keep coming.

As Assistant Manager and Municipal Planner Ian McMeans noted: “Plants don’t recognize property boundaries, and invasive species can spread into public property very easily from yard dumping or gardens. We want to encourage residents to be aware and cautious.”

Fortunately, there are straightforward ways to avoid dumping. Details about municipal services are available at 412-343-3403 or by clicking on the Mt. Lebanon Trash and Recycling Collection Guide at mtlebanon.org.

Participate in the municipality’s woody waste collection days, which occur April through October. Branches and twigs are chipped up and taken to the public works sites. You may also haul your recyclable paper bags full of leaves, woody waste or garden residues to the Mt. Lebanon Golf Course recycling site on alternating Saturdays from April to October.

Participate in the municipality’s fall leaf pickups. The municipality collects paper bags of leaves or runs the vacuum truck, then mulches the leaves at a public works site. It is against Pennsylvania law to put leaves into the regular waste stream destined for landfills. Or, you can “leave the leaves” by raking them into your planting beds. This creates overwintering habitat for pollinators and other insects like caterpillars.

Turn your lawnmower settings to “mulch” to return grass clippings onto the lawn. Mulching nourishes your lawn and keeps bagged-up clippings out of the landfill.