Photo: Shari Small/WBZ NewsRadio
METHUEN, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — A Methuen man has made it his mission to strengthen his local ecosystem.
Nate Whitmer has a day job in HR, but on the weekends, he works as a native plant restoration specialist, restoring his neighborhood’s lawns with greenery that supports the wildlife and rids them of invasive plants that hurt the ecosystem.
“If you keep planting non-native plants that then invade, they take up the space for these native plants,” Whitmer said.
According to Whitmer, the ideal lawn supports birds, bees, caterpillars, and other good insects as well, keeping the local ecosystem healthy and thriving.
“(The native plant life) feeds caterpillars that feeds the chickadees that need several hundred caterpillars a day just to raise their baby chickadees,” he said.
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Whitmer has become an invasive species watchdog, always keeping his mental plant radar up even when he’s not actively landscaping.
“If you're driving down the road with me and my wife, you’ll hear ‘oh my goodness, there's another Japanese knotweed infestation,’ ‘Ah, that poor tree,’” Whitmer said.
He also said that his landscaping exploits have been received mostly positively.
“Most neighbors are open to it, and they're happy, and heck, it's free landscaping for them,” Whitmer said. “My goal is to make the ecosystem here a better, healthier ecosystem.”
WBZ NewsRadio’s Shari Small (@ShariSmallNews) reports.