WALNUT CREEK — Many leaves on the 1,200 trees near Jeanette Asselin’s Countrywood home still haven’t dropped, but she’s already worried about how to pick them all up.

The 72-year-old Asselin, who has served for 20 years on her neighborhood’s self-managed homeowner’s association, said a small, in-house crew maintains the walking paths and picnic areas that line the nearly 300 homes built on the corner of Treat Boulevard and Bancroft Road. When inundated with foliage, the area can quickly become slippery, and Asselin said clearing the paths is the cheapest way to prevent falls or other complaints about the 42-acre property’s landscaping.

She’s worried that might change after the weather dries out in the spring, when Walnut Creek will start enforcing a ban on the gas-powered blowers that ke

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