The grant that saved the forest: how Valerii Bobrovskyi created the first private forest in Mykolaiv region

Near Halytsynove, where there is sand and steppe, a forest grows in the middle of the fields. It is small, but stubborn. It was not on any map, not included in any development programme. It grew out of the dream of one man, Valerii Bobrovskyi.

This forest, or, as the owner calls it, the nursery, is his personal territory of power. Not an office with parquet flooring, not a greenhouse with strawberries, not a trendy start-up, but seven hectares of pine trees. It's more than just trees - it's a business that has grown through the war, shell fragments and general despondency.

A resident of the Mykolaiv region planted a pine forest on 7 hectares of land, photo by Olena Goryacheva

«He wanted to do what no one else was doing»

When Valeriy planted the first pine trees in 2016, people wondered why. «The land is sandy. Nothing but gourds grow here»," they said. But he knew that a real forest could take root in this soil.

«I have always been interested in something creative. Something that no one else does»," says Valeriy. An ecologist by training, he worked for many years in an environmental inspection. So when he quit, he started thinking about what to do with his family's land and chose pine trees instead of watermelons.

Advertising

«I found everything about planting technology on the Internet, consulted with my forestry friends. And I started»," he recalls the events of nine years ago.

"The pines started to grow. Slowly, like everything real. Five years later, the first batch of Christmas trees appeared and people started buying them. The idea seemed to have taken root.

But two months later, the war came.

The forest under fire

When the frontline came close, the trees became silent witnesses to the fighting. Our battery stood on the edge of the nursery, and the aggressor's artillery was two kilometres away. These trees are now just a rolled sandy road. One drone fell right between the pines and burst into flames. The missile from «hurricane» left the tail-engine in the ground. The main part stuck a few metres into the ground and now it is sticking out in the middle of the forest as a monument to Russian aggression, which is ruthless to people, businesses, and nature.

«"Once we were cutting a Christmas tree for sale, and the chainsaw passed within a centimetre of a cluster munition," says Valeriy. - "It was a miracle that nothing happened."»

Some pine trees were burnt and died, others were crippled by debris. But in general, the forest remained. And so did Valerii, with his desire to develop his nursery. In December 2022, he was already selling Christmas trees again.

The forest suffered from Russian felling, photo by Olena Horiacheva

A tractor that came at the right time

In 2024, Valerii Bobrovskyi heard about the grant programme «Initiative for a Sustainable Future» from the NGO «and the Ukrainian Association of Business Support Centres» and IRC. The village council encouraged him to try it. I took training, wrote a business plan and submitted an application. I knew that the biggest danger to the forest is not winter or heat, but the pine sawfly. This pest can destroy trees that you have grown for years in a week.

«We used to manually treat 10% of the trees in a week. This is the maximum. And the sawfly does not wait. This year, it attacked particularly aggressively. The pest was on almost every tree. We didn't have a week to treat it - it would have had time to eat the branches on all the trees»," says Valerii.

A grant of almost 200,000 hryvnias that he received earlier this year allowed him to buy a mini-tractor. It saved the day in the spring. Instead of a week of manual labour, it took one day to process the entire forest. Instead of the skeletons of destroyed trees, we have saved green crowns.

«I 100% would not have bought it myself. The income from the pines is not high, and I have run out of savings since the start of the full-scale invasion and rehabilitation after the injury»," says Valeriy.

He is pleased to have won the grant competition and plans to apply for new grants. In the meantime, he is planning new business ventures.

The grant helped him purchase equipment for working in the forest, photo by Olena Goryacheva

A forest that works all year round

Valeriy is not one to stop working. He doesn't want the forest to be open only during the New Year holidays.

Next spring, people will be able to come here to admire the primroses he has planted under the pines. He plans to build gazebos and arrange photo zones. Rose hips will grow along the edge of the forest, medicinal chamomile on the lawn, and butter mushrooms between the trees. In April, pollen will be collected, and in May - cones. We already have orders to make jam from them. «It will be environmentally friendly and profitable»," the owner smiles.

And most importantly, he wants to create jobs. Not seasonal jobs, but permanent ones. So that people can live here, nearby, take care of it and understand that the forest is not just a green space, but a source of prosperity.

The forest grows primroses, rose hips and mushrooms, photo by Olena Goryacheva

The first private pine forest in the region will not be the last

Today, the forest is a separate ecosystem. Buttercups grow under the trees, fox holes are found in the sand, and sometimes hares run by. In spring, there are many flowers here, and it seems that pine trees grow right out of the carpet. The forest began to breathe on its own, like a living system that gradually regains its balance on the sandy ground. And this inspired Valerii to make a serious decision: the first private pine forest in Mykolaiv region will definitely not be the last. He has another 9 hectares of sandy land nearby that he plans to plant in the near future.

Valeriy's story is not just about trees. It is about how, in times when everything seems to be falling apart, you can plant something. And to grow not just a business.

Valerii Bobrovskyi wants to plant another 9 hectares of land with forests, photo by Olena Goryacheva

Olena Goryacheva for _nikvesti