Planting Trees of Life

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Andy Lipkis, 34, a bearded, boyish, homespun half saint, knows something about delivering dreams. His life is a demonstration in respectable alchemy, creating gold from nothing. Inspired by the belief that planting trees can reduce smog, protect the ozone layer, feed hungry people and, when all is said and done and planted, save the planet, Lipkis has become a global Johnny Appleseed. The organization he founded 15 years ago, TreePeople, is directly or indirectly responsible for planting more than 170 million trees around the world. At the center of TreePeople's mission is the belief that people can save themselves by saving the land.

Lipkis' ideas about voluntarism have a certain earthy logic. "Scientists define pollution as energy waste. Sewage is pollution when you dump it in the ocean -- yet it's so loaded with nutrients that it could enrich any soil it is put into," he explains. "It's the same with humans. People have an immense amount of energy, but for the most part it isn't being used. The result is a kind of pollution: frustration, depression, rage, crime. Society needs that energy, and nobody is making the connection."

Lipkis' revelation came 18 years ago at summer camp, where he planted his first smog-resistant trees. "It was backbreaking work that required all of our creativity," he recalls. "For me, it was a life-altering experience." Lipkis went on to study ecology and search for ways to encourage more people to plant more trees. "I started a long process of trying and failing," he remembers, as he sought to enlist public and private support for his cause. "Being able to fail is a key to the volunteer process," he adds now. "In their jobs, people aren't allowed to do that. The real joy of being a volunteer is the freedom to express yourself without fear that it will be held against you."

Lipkis emerged from his trials and errors a resourceful man, in the most literal sense of the word. Since founding TreePeople, he has enlisted volunteers everywhere, from senior citizens' homes to grade schools, to plant millions upon millions of trees. He has persuaded nurseries to donate unsold seedlings they would otherwise have destroyed. He has coaxed the California National Guard ("all those empty trucks and planes sitting around") into helping transport the trees. He once even persuaded Club Med to rescue and care for two exhausted TreePeople volunteers in Senegal who had fallen ill while planting fruit trees in famine-stricken African countries. "I don't know how many bureaucrats have laughed us off over the years," he muses. "Then one person says, 'Maybe we can help you.' That's vital to voluntarism."

Nowadays, after a year of ecological nightmares, Lipkis is promoting tree planting as the easiest solution to the greenhouse effect, the buildup of CO2 ( that has environmentalists warning of a disastrous global warming trend. Trees absorb as much as 48 lbs. of carbon dioxide per year each. Guided by the success of Lipkis' volunteer efforts, the American Forestry Association announced in October a citizens' campaign to plant 100 million trees around the country.