AND THROUGH THE AGES FLOWS THE OREL
A unique eighteenth century architectural ensemble of the Orel area is a group of Cossack churches in Kytaihorod. Built in 1754- 1757 by northern Dnipro Left Bank masters, the three churches of the Assumption, St. Barbara, and St. Nicholas belong to the Ukrainian baroque style. They constitute a swan song of the Cossack soul directed toward heaven. Having withstood all blows of various acts of God and restored in the early 1990s, they produce irresistible attraction, purifying and reviving our souls, arousing in us an aspiration for the eternal and beautiful.
The Orel is also connected with Taras Shevchenko’s stay in the Dnipro region. Traveling across Ukraine in 1845, the poet was going from Poltava to Shediyeve where he put up at the manor of noble art patron Lukyanovych. According to Poltava-based writer Petro Rohach, the true itinerary line ran along the Reshetyliv road via Mashivka and Nekhvoroshcha, while Dnipropetrovsk Shevchenko researcher Viktor Demyanov has even identified one of the poet’s drawings, The Village of Stenka as relating to the area next to what was then the village of Konovalivka. The landscape’s general outlines have undergone surprisingly few changes over a century and a half.
SPRINGTIME FLOWERS SPRANG UP IN THE VELVET OF RIVERSIDE GRASS
Searching for historical information on Orel nature, we read in Dmytro Yavornytsky’s source, “The Orel woodland was a narrow strip running along the Orel’s left bank, beginning at the place where the Bohata River emptied in it and ending at the Orel’s mouth, which amounted to about 5,690 desiatynas (1 desiatyna =2.7 acres — Ed.) of forestry for as long as 143 verstas (1 versta = 1.06 kilometers — Ed.). Towering above the other species was the oak-tree which was here more than 6 arshyns (1 arshyn =0.71 meters — Ed.) in circumference and up to one arshyn and 6 vershky (1 vershok = 0.0444 m. — Ed.) in diameter. In addition to oak, there were beech, ash, maple, pussy willow, wild apple, and pear trees.” Enchanted with the local beauty, the chronicler of Cossack glory compared the Orel valley to the Promised Land flowing with milk and honey.
Orel basin vegetation, as an object of research, attracted scientists as long ago as in the 1930s. It is here that Belhard, an eminent steppe and forest researcher, organized expeditions. The classic works of Dnipropetrovsk botanists strike one with the depth of research and the amount of fieldwork done: they are a unique research material for understanding the genesis of the whole region’s flora. The present-day state of Orel vegetation is characterized by the highly representative and biologically diverse nature of the level of flora and cenoses. There is a total of about 1000 species of plants, with 22 of them entered into the Red Book of Ukraine.
In the seventeenth century, Guillaume de Beauplan rightfully considered the Orel the richest fishing river of all the Dnipro’s tributaries, “...in its mouth, fishermen once took over 2000 fish after casting their net one time; the smallest were about a foot long.” Now, too, in spite of widespread poaching, the Orel attracts fishers, especially underwater hunters. Ornithologists quite rightfully call the Orel area an avian Eldorado: over 170 species of birds have chosen the river valley as their home in various seasons. Flocks of thousands of wild geese, the settlements of white herons, or the mating flight of the snipe: you can still see and hear this on the blessed banks of the Orel. Another inimitable feature of the local scenery is the nests of storks almost in any nearby village.
ORLAN MADE FRIENDS WITH THE OREL
The Orel’s pastpresent and future destiny have become the object of constant attention and care on the part of Orlan (Sea Eagle), a Dniprodzerzhynsk non- governmental environmental and tourism organization. The noble idea of wildlife preservation has brought together young scientists, conservationists, experienced tourists, along with inquisitive school and college students. The year 1996 saw the first waterway research expedition from the left tributary Zaplavka to the old mouth. Other expeditions, youth ecological camps, and painstaking efforts to make a feasibility report on a national nature park followed. These actions were supported by the International Renaissance Foundation, the Dutch Millieukontakt-Oost- Europa environmental organization, and the Dnipropetrovsk oblast administration. Fruitful work made it possible to get the real picture of both the present condition of some ecosystems and the natural and cultural heritage as a whole, to make a rich collection of photos and videos, and to put on an exhibition at the Orel Museum. Anatoly Bilokin, director of the ethnographic museum at Tsarychanka was one of the first to sound alarm over the destiny of the Kytaihorod architectural monument, which once incurred the wrath of bureaucrats. Volodymyr Sachava, chairman of the Pereshchepyno hunting association, managed, at the highest possible level in the so-called years of stagnation, to save Lake Pohorile: he persuaded the authorities to alter a highway-building project which posed a direct threat to the lake.
The couple of self-taught artists Volodymyr and Liudmyla Loboda have long spent most of every year by the Orel. Their house in the village Turove at the foot of a hill with steppe endemics is also an art studio, an art club, and a genuine ethnographic museum. Other people enchanted by the Orel is the subject of a different publication.
WILL THERE BE A NATIONAL PARK BY THE OREL?
The question of establishing a nature preserve in the Orel valley has been repeatedly raised by Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv academics. This is especially relevant in the context of developing a national ecosystem, with the Orel national nature park to be an integral part of it. A whole range of natural, historical, cultural, and social factors speak in favor of establishing such a park. Balanced and ecologically-oriented tourism on its territory could become a major factor in the region’s economic development, promoting the creation of jobs and additional income for local people. The project envisions that the park’s green belt will envelop the river valley of over 80,000 hectares from the point where the left tributary Orelka empties into the old estuary. What stands in the way of creating a national park is the still incomplete land reform in the region, negative attitude of some landowners preoccupied with possible limitations on the exploitation of natural resources, and the overall instability of Ukraine’s economic and political situation.
Let us charge ourselves with the persistence and optimism of the enthusiasts and look to the future with hope. There will be a national park beyond doubt. The Orel banks will live through the ages as a major component of our natural heritage.
