TEAM DNP/BB
Jean Devine
Chief Seed Sower, Devine Native Plantings, LLC
Executive Director, Biodiversity Builders℠
Jean Devine is an environmental educator, native-plant coach, and specialty landscaper. She has a background in native plant garden design and implementation, sustainability, curriculum design and teaching, entrepreneurship, nonprofit management and marketing. She combines those skills with her passion to empower youth to make an environmental impact and have fun outdoors. With over a decade of experience, she created DNP in late 2021 to address the urgency of mentoring the community through native-plant projects that restore biodiverse habitats and build climate resilience.
Jean also created the environmental- entrepreneurship program Biodiversity Builders℠ for college and high school youth to teach biodiversity, the science and art behind native plant-native pollinator relationships and advocacy.
As a native plant coach, Jean helps property owners audit existing species, assess site conditions, and define and design spaces to add native plants that will boost food and habitat for at-risk bees, butterflies, birds and wildlife. Devine enjoys networking and bringing people together to address environmental problems on a larger scale. Because of “the urgency of now” Devine is compelled to replicate her enthusiasm and dedication to our planet. Jean also teaches adult education and gives talks and workshops to garden clubs and sustainability organizations.
Read: Elissa Ely’s profile of Jean in Belmont Citizens Forum.
Listen: Thomas Christopher’s interview of Jean/Biodiversity Builders on his podcast “Growing Greener.”
Skye Schirmer
Senior Designer, Devine Native Plantings, LLC
Program Advisor, Biodiversity Builders℠
Schirmer acts as Designer, Program Advisor, administrator, and curriculum developer and has a background in fine-art and graphic design. She has held jobs as a project manager, farm-hand, production designer, educator, child-care specialist, and gallery assistant. Through Jean’s mentorship, Schirmer’s knowledge of native plants and pollinators has grown exponentially. After many years of working active manual labor jobs in different environmental and creative fields, Schirmer has found a home in habitat restoration and native plant landscaping and is eager to continue her educational journey in design, advocacy, and nature-based solutions. She is currently working towards her certificate in Sustainable Garden Design from New York Botanical Garden.
Jean Devine also is the co-founder and steering committee member of the Mystic Charles Pollinator Pathway Group (MCPPG). Launched in July 2020, MCPPG promotes native plant pollinator gardening in the greater Boston region to support declining populations of native bees, butterflies and birds, and to boost biodiversity and wildlife habitat. One of MCPPG’s initiatives is to map native plant gardens to illustrate the strength and weaknesses in our corridor (native bees and butterflies can’t fly that far).
