Love of nature calls Burton man to volunteer, work to help environment | Local Government

“So mom made him drag his baby brother along with him,” Mr. Fletcher said, laughing. “There was woods near home, and we knew all the neighbors and were allowed to go through their woods.”

He thinks he first got lost in the woods at age 5.

“But I wasn’t very lost,” he said. 

From an early age, Mr. Fletcher learned about conservation. 

A volunteer for The Nature Conservancy since 2001, Mr. Fletcher is volunteer crew chief at the Lucia S. Nash Preserve in Burton, where he guides invasive species control to protect native habitats. 

He got his naturalist certificate from the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and is an Ohio certified volunteer naturalist and a Holden Arboretum member. 

“So I just get around wherever I can and do whatever I can,” he said. “I tend to try and stay close to home. I never saw much advantage of spending hours and hours driving to do a couple hours of volunteering.” 

Mr. Fletcher spent most of his career working in factories until he was laid off in 2008. After waiting around for the economy to recover and to find a new factory job, he finally discovered The Nature Conservancy had a position. The nonprofit hired him for the summer twice. 

“I said, well, this is great. I’m actually getting paid to do the stuff I used to do for free,” Mr. Fletcher said. 

Mr. Fletcher also worked for the Cleveland Metroparks, which is when he met Adam Wohlever at the Division of Natural Areas and Preserves, who hired him for the winter and then wanted him for the summer, so he went there and retired a couple years ago, he said. 

He named his latest project, which was moving Buckeye Trail off of Rapids Road, which took two years. Now hikers do not have to worry about getting run over as much, he joked. 

The lifelong Burton resident is also a Eucharistic minister down the street from his house at St. Helen Catholic Church. He enjoys taking his nieces and nephews to enjoy the preserve.