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Davey worker restores balance to Mother Nature

David Riddell never expected to be doing what he's doing.

After earning his degree in conservation at Kent State University, he figured he'd land a government job, perhaps managing a park or working in some ecology department.

Today, Riddell, 28, is a biologist with Davey Resource Group, a division of Davey Tree Expert Co. in Kent, where most of his time is spent killing invasive plant species to make room for plants that were meant to grow here.

Before he joined Davey four years ago, ''I had no idea that jobs like this existed,'' he said.

His current assignment is in Munroe Falls, where three miles of river bank exposed by the removal of a dam has been taken over by non-native vegetation.

''When you bring back native vegetation, you bring back the butterflies and birds that are meant to be here,'' he said. ''We want to make the area as pristine as it was 100 years ago.''

The 128-year-old Davey company is responding to the modern green movement in several ways, including designing low-maintenance landscaping that requires less water to grow and less fuel to mow.

And the fairly new ecological restoration division is in response to cities that are removing dams that messed up their community's biological diversity.

''My sense is it's going to continue to grow as more people become aware of the environment and what we can do to enhance and preserve it,'' Riddell said.

David Riddell never expected to be doing what he's doing.

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David Riddell, a biologist/project manager for Davey Tree, looks over a spread of common reed along the river at the Brust Park Bike & Hike Trail on Wednesday, June 25, 2008, in Munroe Falls, Ohio. Riddell works for Davey Tree's ecological restoration division and common reed is one of six or seven species of plants that are choking out native species that they company is trying to eliminate. (Ed Suba Jr./Akron Beacon Journal)




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