Healing the soil, healing the earth

American Forests, Autumn, 1997 by Janine Guglielmino

Chlypniacz, 74, lives outside Chicago, and the first impression he makes is one of exuberance, enthusiasm, and energy. A thick Ukrainian accent punctuates his speech, giving his words a sing-song liveliness reminiscent of a child whose imagination knows no bounds.

"My goal is to plant one million trees," he says. "Trees give life. They control temperature. They help clean the air."

Chlypniacz grew up among the thick pine forests of western Ukraine's Carpathian Mountains and remembers talking with his father as they walked hand-in-hand through the woods. But this idyllic life was cut short when the Soviets invaded during World War 11. Chlypniacz, then 21, and his father abandoned their home and fled to a train station at the Hungarian border. They lost sight of each other in the confusion, and Chlypniacz was injured and taken to a hospital. He never saw his father again.

After he recovered, Chlypniacz made his way to Strasshof, Austria, and eventually to a displaced persons' camp in Landeck, Austria. The camp offered little for a young man's curious mind, so Chlypniacz searched for solace in the surrounding mountains.

"We were in the Tyrolian Alps. It was very beautiful," he says. "And I could see that the people who lived there had a special respect for their environment and worked at preserving it."

Moving to Chicago in 1949, Chlypniacz became a plumber's apprentice, joined civic groups and a local church, and acclimated himself to life in the States. But he never forgot what he had endured. When he saw an article in a Ukrainian newspaper about the Chornobyl memorial grove in a Florida Global ReLeaf Forest, it struck a chord.

The article, by Global ReLeaf International coordinator Chrystia Sonevytsky, described the planting of long-leaf pine on 314 acres at Ocklawaha Prairie in Marion County. The site is the U.S. companion to tree groves in Ukraine, an effort to memorialize victims of the world's worst nuclear disaster.

Chlypniacz had always loved the beauty of trees, but says he knew little about their ecological benefits before calling Sonevytsky to discuss the project.

"I knew it was a good cause and I knew that trees did a lot for the beauty of the area," recalls Chlypniacz. "But I never knew before how trees produce oxygen and clean the air. It will do good to plant them in Ukraine - and here - because we need all the plants we can get."

For the last two years, Chlypniacz has worked toward his goal of helping Global ReLeaf plant a million trees in the two countries. So far he has collected $4,000 (the equivalent of 4,000 trees) by talking to neighbors and members of his church, convincing local radio stations to give him air time, and speaking at local schools. Planting pines to provide cleaner air, control global temperatures, and absorb harmful carbon dioxide is a sales pitch few can resist.

"I went to Boston for my grandson's holy communion and told his teacher about my project," says Chlypniacz of a particularly memorable "fundraiser." "She invited me to speak, and the children asked me, 'Why are you doing this?' I said, 'I want to do something to help my country.' The children pooled their money and gave it to the teacher to give to me. She said they learned a lot from what I had said."

"We need trees, especially for the survivors of Chornobyl, where there was so much death," Chlypniacz says. "Planting trees will give the earth life."