In the country of “huge rocks”

Tens of thousands of tourists have visited Mt. Hoverla, the highest peak of the Ukrainian Carpathians and the Chornohora mountain range. As a rule, truly virgin spots in the Carpathians are open only to researchers. Our correspondent Hanna Hopko was fortunate enough to visit the Gorgany Nature Preserve, located in the most inaccessible part of the Gorgany, known as the Dovbushanski Gorgany. Here most of the ranges are covered with rockfields, which the Hutsuls calls grehoty (or hrehoty ); they occupy 12 percent of the nature preserve’s territory. In the local Hutsul dialect gorgan means a “great rock” or “cliff.” The word hrekhit (or grekhit) originates from the dull thud produced by falling rocks, so locals say kameni grekhochut .

The following article talks about the endless fields of yellow rocks overgrown with lichen, the most scenic landscapes in the Ukrainian Carpathians, one of whose protectors in 1935 was Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.

A TICKET TO THE NATURE PRESERVE IN EXCHANGE FOR A RESEARCH PAPER OR NEWSPAPER ARTICLE

Vasyl Kysliak, director of the Gorgany Nature Preserve, agreed to meet with journalists provided they published an article. He added jokingly that this kind of publicity is expected from all visitors, either in the form of an article in a scientific journal or magazine. Although tourists are not encouraged, a visit to marvel at Gorgany’s fantastic environs is possible. There are special research and educational itineraries, called footpaths, along with several tourist itineraries outside the nature preserve.

A 65-km ride from Ivano- Frankivsk takes you through the town of Nadvirna and finally to Zelena, a village with a branch of the Gorgany Nature Preserve Research Center. The office is run by Oksana Ostashuk, one of the few female managers found in the forestries of Carpatho-Ukraine.

Surrounded by mountains, Zelena is a very scenic place, and its people are genuinely hospitable. Here you can buy food in the local store that doubles as a cafe or order a meal at the local tavern, called kolyba. You can find genuine, ecologically clean, tasty products — no genetically modified products! — in practically every home and picturesque local restaurant. One of the villagers, Maria Yaremchuk (Zaliska), made us welcome and offered us milk, cheese, sour cream, and freshly baked doughnuts called pampushky. She told us she was raising nine grandsons from her four children. She doesn’t visit Nadvirna often except to buy groats, because she gets the rest of her produce from the land. The bountiful surroundings allow the populace to earn money for the next year by picking berries and mushrooms and selling them. Nature meets all the needs of the highlanders, who are not known for their excessive consumerism and shopping. They have what is most valuable: pure water, clean air, and safe foods — something urban residents have long been denied, or which they have to buy at considerable cost.

15,000 METERS OF IMPRESSIONS

So what are the Gorgany all about? What makes this mountain range different from the others? You will understand this only when you see them from above, as though you were an eagle flying over the place. That Sunday morning we set off to the mountains, starting at 700 meters above sea level. Our guide was the ranger of the nature preserve — “Inspector First Class” — Vasyl Yaremchuk. He asked us what we wanted to see, whether we were ready for the trip, and how many kilometers we thought we could walk.

“At least 15 kilometers,” was our cheerful reply.

After climbing the first thousand meters we experienced our first surprise: a herd of spotted salamanders was heading in our direction along the forest road next to a mountain river, the very same species that is included in the Red List of Threatened Species. There are a lot of them here, unlike other places in the Carpathians where this kind of amphibian is seldom encountered, if ever. Apart from spotted salamanders, this area boasts over 25 other species included in the Red List. In winter you can find footprints left by deer, marten, fox, and wolves.

Yaremchuk, like the other staff members of the nature preserve, keeps track of natural phenomena, conducts phenological studies, and records the times when the flowers and trees start to blossom, and when the first frogs appear. The flowers and trees convey data that is far more reliable than any satellite weather forecasts. For eons Ukrainians have read nature for signs when to begin sowing and harvesting, which is characteristic of the age-old harmony between man and nature.

“THE 300-YEAR-OLD SILVER FIRS WOULD HAVE DISAPPEARED LONG AGO IF NOT FOR THE NATURE PRESERVE”

Walking up the mountains was becoming harder with every meter, but infinitely more interesting. The forest was getting thicker and the trees bulkier, some measuring over 100 cm in diameter. This nature preserve has the tallest trees in the Gorgany range: beech, fir trees, and silver firs. Here the tallest trees reach heights of 51 meters. Stopping next to a fir that is approximately 300 years old, Yaremchuk told us about this primeval forest, untouched by man and never desecrated by industry. “Under the Soviets it was hard for lumberjacks to get here because of the steep terrain, so our trees survived. But all these trees would have been stumps by now if this nature preserve had not been established in independent Ukraine,” our guide happily informed us.

In these primeval forests, especially those that are part of nature preserves and under government protection, you can find a living organism that evolves naturally and does not require any help or interference from man. Here every tree felled by a storm, now rotting away, gives life to other trees. We stopped by a fallen, half-rotten fir tree on whose trunk four small firs were growing. For a hiker, such fallen trees blocking his way are not obstacles but a distraction from the hiking routine.

Mixed forests dominated by silver firs belong to the first highland vegetation belt. This nature preserve is vertically divided into three altitudinal vegetation belts. The next two are purely silver fir and cedar-silver fir forests and the sub-Alpine belt, with scrubs of mountain pines and rocky outcroppings overgrown with moss and lichen. They were ahead of us.

After covering a distance of nearly four kilometers, we had only a five- minute rest next to a tiny brook. You can’t die of thirst in these parts. There are about 30 brooks in the nature preserve, which originate in the adjoining mountains. The main river is Bystrytsia Nadvirnianska in whose basin the nature preserve is located. Its numerous tributaries, including Zubrivka, Dovzhynets, and Zelenytsia, ensure the comfort of the local flora and fauna.

The cold, delicious mountain water gave us the energy to reach the 1,500-meter-high Berezovachka, the first peak of this vast mountain range. The highest peak is Mt. Dovbushanka (1,754.6 meters). The other peaks are Vedmezhyk, Poliensky, and Pikun. Here you will find another vegetation belt, with many cembra pines that make up the bulk of the nature preserve’s primeval forest. In 1933, a young forest ranger by the name of Andrii Piasetsky raised the issue of protecting the tracts of cedars in the Gorgany. In 1935, the participants of an environmentalist convention greeted Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky, who had founded the first cedar preserve in the Gorgany, stretching over an area of 255 hectares, in the Limnytsia river basin. In 1936, the Ukrainian Catholic prelate laid out the 1,800 ha Park of Ukrainian Nature. In 1940, the Soviet Ukrainian government planned to expand the preserve to 50,000 ha, but the Second World War put an end to these projects.

After the war environmental work resumed in western Ukraine only in the late 1950s. Researchers and environmental organizations submitted a list of prized areas in need of government protection. It included cedar plantations on the Dzhurdzhi natural boundary that was part of the Gorgany Nature Preserve. The Gorgany government-protected forestry was instituted in 1974, including the state game preserves Sadky (995 ha) and Dzhurdzhi (754 ha). Twenty-two years later, in 1996, the president of Ukraine signed an edict establishing Gorgany, Carpatho-Ukraine’s first (and only) nature preserve.

STRUGGLING FOR A PLACE IN THE SUN

Mt. Berezovachka offers breathtaking vistas. It is as though God took a paintbrush and created these masterpieces. Up ahead you see Mt. Kozii Gorgan, a very steep gradient at 40°, and almost completely covered with rocks.

So this is what the Gorgany are all about! This is an elongated mountain range with sharp peaks and precarious southeast and more benign southwest slopes. These are mostly characteristic of the Dovbushanski Gorgany. Most of these consist of rockfields.

The spaces between the scattered rocks are carpeted with the alpiika, or mountain pine. This is the sub-Alpine vegetation belt. Here, unlike in the previous two belts, the terrain is dominated by mountain pine and rockfields overgrown with moss and lichen.

Rocky outcroppings stretching for miles on end amidst virgin nature mark the wounds left by the glaciers, wounds that Mother Nature has had no time to heal. But trees will eventually do the healing. Mountain pines, which look like small shrubs, are crowding out the rocks. This is how nature defends her place in the sun. Winds scatter the pine pollen, which settles on rock from which the trees sprout. We saw a birch growing right out of a rock. Some earth had gotten into a very small crack in the rock and some birch pollen drifted in. With each passing year the rocks are giving way to vegetation.

As we rested in a rockfield, our guide, Vasyl Yaremchuk, told us about two young eagles that recently landed near him. Unfortunately, he didn’t have a camera; otherwise he could have taken some very nice pictures. The nature preserve lacks funds for primary necessities, like clothing and gear, let alone video and ordinary cameras. He refused to tell us what he earns, but obviously our bureaucrats are taking as “good” care of people in government service as they are of physicians and schoolteachers.

However, for this ranger, working at the nature preserve is a cherished dream come true. As a small boy he dreamed of protecting rather than exploiting his native Gorgany. Fighting in Afghanistan, where a huge rock served as a home for the local populace, he dreamed of returning home as soon as he could so that he could help protect his beloved Gorgany. Nature and songs are true harmony, says Yaremchuk, who once worked at a local House of Culture.

IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF THE INSURGENTS

Like a true enlightener, our guide took us along the footpaths of the Ukrainian insurgents. The Ukrainian national liberation struggle took place in the Gorgany and there are still a few Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) bunkers. The most famous one is located on a slope of Mt. Berezovachka. It belonged to UPA Colonel Mykola Tverdokhlib, codenamed “Hrim.” When we were 60 meters from the hideout, Yaremchuk told us to try to find it without his assistance.

If not for the well-trodden path, we would have had a hard time finding it in the middle of the forest and trenches, mute witnesses of World War Two. Every May, on the anniversary of the death of Colonel “Hrim” and his wife Olha Herasymovych, people gather here for a liturgy for the dead, among them members of the Ukrainian scouting organization, Plast, from western and eastern Ukraine.

The battle on Mt. Berezovachka in the spring of 1954 marked the end of the UPA’s armed struggle against the Soviets. The NKVD found out the location of the bunker from a traitor. Before he could be captured, Colonel “Hrim” burned all the documents. Then he shot his wife Olha Herasymovych, who refused to live without him, and himself. Anna Popovych, who was also in the bunker, was captured and lived to carry out a mission that the colonel assigned to her: to survive and eventually tell the truth about the Ukrainian resistance movement.

Inside the hideout, which was restored when Ukraine became independent, it was damp and cold. The kitchen and two rooms were damp not because of the nearby spring but because there was no air hole. The original design envisaged three layers over the ceiling, with an empty space in between so that neither snow nor rain could penetrate the rooms. There was also an excellent drainage system. Even local shepherds couldn’t find the bunker. The NKVD racked their brains trying to locate the hideout, unsuccessfully taking samples from all the local brooks and springs. But their efforts were in vain, until the traitor showed them the way to the bunker.

Today it is hard to imagine how people could spend entire winters here. After hearing stories about the heroic exploits of our forefathers, you find yourself pondering the current builders of the Ukrainian state, our MPs. Would they be prepared to make any sacrifices for the sake of Ukraine?

It turns out that our guide was one of the initiators of the project to restore Colonel “Hrim’s” hideout, although he modestly avoided mentioning this fact.

Descending the steep mountain seemed easier than the ascent. On our guide’s advice we swam in the river after our 15 km hike. He was right and we felt much better. Yaremchuk covers a minimum distance of 15 km a day. In one month he covers over 350 km.

THE SONG FLOWS AND FLOWS

In the evening we were again treated to fresh milk and cheese. Our generous hosts also offered us freshly collected honey. Over drinks by a campfire we sang insurgent songs, but started with “Chervona ruta” (Red Rue). The Latin name of this plant made famous by Volodymyr Ivasiuk is rhododendron. It grows very rarely in these parts.

Our hosts told us stories. “They were felling trees on a mass scale here from 1993 to 1998, when the biggest flood occurred. What could we do?” says Mykhailo, the watchman at the nature preserve. “We had to buy clothing for our children to wear to school. Our forest saved us at the time because there were no jobs; the rock quarry and the lumber plant had closed.”

“At first people weren’t enthusiastic about the idea of a nature preserve because they were afraid that they would no longer be able to pick mushrooms and berries. But when they saw that no one was stealing anything from the forest, that it was now under official protection, they realized the project was to everyone’s benefit. Most locals found jobs here. We have 49 persons on staff and 10-15 part-timers in the summer. This nature preserve was founded not to be protected from man, but for the benefit of man. The number of unauthorized cuttings of trees has been reduced to a minimum. It’s better to earn a living working outdoors, in this clean air,” said Vasyl Kysliak, the director of the nature preserve.

“Even before the war the Ukrainian government wanted to set up a 50,000 ha nature preserve. In 1996, the Gorgany Nature Preserve was founded on a territory of 5,344 ha by presidential decree,” Kysliak said, adding that it is actually the youngest preserve in western Ukraine. However, it is every bit as precious as other preserves in Ukraine. This preserve was created to protect the ancient forest of precious cembra pines and promote ecological education and research.

The neighboring Nadvirnia State Forestry has a number of valuable ancient forests of cembra pines that also require government protection. They too must become part of the nature preserve. The expanded territory (some 12,000 ha) will become a system of ecological corridors through which animals will move freely and will be connected to the protected territories of the Carpathian Biosphere Preserve on Mt. Svydovets and the forest tracts of Carpathian National Park in the Gorgany.

Expanding the protected territories is an important task both for this park and the state. Ukraine’s network of nature preserves is considerably smaller (some four percent of the total area) than in most European countries, where preserves comprise between five and seven percent, and even 11- 12 percent in the north. Nature preserves are good for both flora and fauna, especially for Red List species, says Kysliak, because there is no disturbing factor here, only man’s care.

After hiking for more than 15 km over two days, we were able to see only one-fifth of the nature preserve — 2 out of 10 sectors. We succeeded in ridding ourselves of the stresses of modern urban civilization and getting refreshed. We felt proud of our Ukrainian ancestors, who managed to preserve this oasis for us. We were happy for our descendants, who will be able to feel this harmony with nature.

This pure corner of our land belongs to all of us. Those with money and contacts in high places have not had the time to steal and despoil it; they cannot “grabbadize” it. Above all, it belongs to the local highlanders, who have preserved the age-old tradition of treating nature with the utmost care.

The author would like to thank the staff of the Gorgany Nature Preserve and its director, Vasyl Kysliak, for their hospitality, dedication, and for giving us an opportunity to see virgin nature.

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The area of the Gorgany encompasses precious mountain ecological systems in the central part of the Ukrainian Carpathians, occupying the territories of Nadvirna, Solotvyna, and Rozhniativ raions in Ivano-Frankivsk oblast, and Ust-Chorna raion in Zakarpattia (Transcarpathia) oblast.

Nature preserves are government- protected research centers of national importance. These preserves and all their components are created in order to preserve nature in its original state, which is typical of or germane to this landscape zone; study the processes and phenomena of nature; and develop scientific principles.