Lipkis was 15 years old when he discovered the magic that comes from trees. Polluted air called smog was killing the forests near Los Angeles, where Lipkis lived. He had spent lots of time at a summer camp in those forests and didn't want to see them destroyed. So with the help of some friends, he set out to save the trees.

It was three weeks of hard work! First, the group stripped the pavement from a parking lot at the camp. After they uncovered the soil, they planted redwood, cedar and pine trees that could resist smog. And that's when the magic began: the nearby forest started to come back to life. "We saw squirrels and birds playing on the land," Lipkis says. "We felt we had healed something."

The experience planted the seed for his lifelong quest to help the environment. "When that summer was over, I knew I wanted to keep doing this," he says. "I wanted other kids to have this experience."

More Trees, Please
Lipkis, now 43, believes that trees are one of the keys to saving the planet. His environmental organization, TreePeople, is responsible for planting nearly 2 million trees since 1973. Besides reducing smog and providing animal habitats, trees can be a renewable source of food. In 1986, TreePeople sent 6,000 fruit trees to Africa to help feed hungry people there.

This year TreePeople volunteers are working to make Los Angeles' school district a whole lot greener. Lipkis hopes schoolchildren will join in planting trees, grass and gardens throughout the district. After all, he was a kid when he first learned the magic of trees, and he would like to teach his tricks to the next generation. "Kids are passionate," he says. "They know what to do."