Methuen Man Working To Restore Ecosystem Through Removing Non-Native Plants

Shari Small

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Nate Whitmer's yard is a quintessential buffet for birds, bees, butterflies,
and good insects.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
You're seeing two native goldfinches, beautiful bright yellow birds go
into town on the native flowers here.

Speaker 3 (00:14):
At his home.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Over the years, he's removed non native and invasive plants
that the insects don't eat, planting native species that they do.

Speaker 3 (00:22):
Like that feeds caterpillars, That feeds the chickadees that need
like several hundred caterpillars a day just to raise their
baby chickadees.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
He has a weekend landscaping side hustle, but his radar
is always up.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
If you're driving down the road with me and my
wife him, oh my goodness, there's another Japanese notweed infestation
all that poor tree.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
In fact, he's helping many of his neighbors become better
stewards of our ecosystem. From a Thuin Sherry Small WBZ,
Boston's news radio