The University and Raleigh’s leaf collection services both have notstarted collecting leaves this year as they had by this time in previous years, according to Grounds Manager Robert Bradley.

Bradley said the weather has caused this delay.

“We normally would’ve started at the beginning of November,” he said.

The leaves have not fallen as quickly this year, and he said everythingthey do is affected by the weather.

“We haven’t been able to start reinstalling trees because it hasn’trained,” he said.

The University’s leaf collection service runs independently of Raleigh’ssystem, and has started Monday, Bradley said.

The grounds staff will go through a strict schedule, working to collectleaves that will eventually be ground up and returned as compost withother materials, he said.

“They all come back [in compost],” Bradley said.

According to Bradley, the grounds staff will work for five days during the firstweek, then work six days a week every other week after that.

“We’ve being doing it the same way for 20 years,” he said.

On every other week, he said, they will collect more in areas that are typically pedestrian-filled on weekdays.

They work through all parts of campus, Bradley said, including Centennial and theVeterinary School.

According to a voice-message at the City of Raleigh’s Public WorksDepartment, the city’s leaf collection service will start today.

It said the city has been training new employees.

Erica Pineiro, a senior in horticulture with a landscape concentration, said the leaves are not falling as quickly as they usually do, but there are still some to collect.

“I have seen [people] out picking up leaves,” she said.

The drought has had a big effect on the leaves this year, according to Brandon Smith, a sophomore in general horticulture and plant biology.

“It’s delayed the fall coloring because water plays a key role in photosynthesis,” he said.

Many of the trees where Smith goes hunting have either had their leaves fall off very quickly or they have been very slow to change colors, he said.

Smith said the greater amount of leaves has made this deer season more difficult than others.

“Until the deer’s right on you, you can’t see anything,” he said.