Colin Parker and The

Forest of MoreskWords and Images by Dan Kerins

when I first heard rumours that a local Farmer was transforming his feilds back into an ancient woodland a mile and a half outside Truro, I was intrigued, I fan-tasised about a ‘road to Damascus mo-ment’, envisioning a Hollywood scene of realization, a stoic, world-weary farmer flinging the keys of his combine into the river below, walking off into the sunset ready to make a mends.The truth, however, was much more interesting…..

Prologue It has been over ten years in a world that perhaps needs him more than ever, since Joe Strummer passed away. Lead vocalist, lyricist, and edgy political key stone of one of most influential bands to have come out of the British music scene of the seventies and eighties. When the wheels eventually (and predictably) fell off The Clash, Strummer sheared off into the wilderness, by the late 90’s after a

decade of wound-licking reflection he re-emerged, re-invented and as dangerous as ever, ready to take on the 21st century. “When you’re out to get the honey, you don’t go killing all the bees”Strummer was back, articulate, honest and impassioned. His long held beliefs of social justice, humanitarianism and environmental-ism had galvanised into something new, something pertinent, positive and loud that needed to be heard; a final call to arms for the age ahead. Sadly it wasn’t to last long, at age of 50 Joe Strummer passed away quietly at his Somerset home, leaving the world with more tough questions than easy answers but his influence and vision remain a legacy hard to ignore. Before his death, strummer had been instrumental in forming Forest

Futures(later to become carbon neutral), an organization that attempts to mitigate the effects of climate change by off-set-ting the carbon emissions of commercial companies and individuals by re-planting trees. Despite the concept drawing some well deserved criticism from certain quarters of the green movement, Strummer’s early involvement is a testament to his fore-sight, understanding and commitment to his ideals. And it is that commitment that defined Joe Strummer, he wasn’t a fake, he meant what he said, he strove to understand the world and its people with an empathic ear and eyes and encouraged us to do the same.It is that concept of an Ideal as ‘a princi-ple that one actively purses as a goal’, that brings us back to Colin Parker and his

the gear stick backwards.“My land extends from that creek there back to the valley I just showed you, yes? And there’s the pass, the mal pass, French word you see, for centauries this was a place of commerce, goods from all around, Spain, Ireland even the Mid-dle East where traded in that river, just there yes?, later on of course the big ships would unload and the goods taken up to Truro”We took a sharp left and rattled up a steep narrow lane.“Well here we are……..Welcome to the Forest of Moresk”Straight away there was something Strummer-esque about Colin, he has an energy about him, a presence that out-weighs his stature, a weathered face tells of hours of hard work and deep thought. His mannerisms are deliberate, agile and calculated, he moves through the forest like a tribal elder, short, shallow quick little steps. He talks in a gruff slightly abrasive manner, with a confidence that lets you know there’s no time for bollocks or showboating, yet at the same time he’s personable and humble. He seems keen to listen, to teach and to understand.

commitment to the Forest of Moresk.Colin Parker

From the other side of the battered lan-drover window a gnarled and sun tanned hand clawed back the glass, two bright vi-brant eyes shot out towards me, two blue bullshit detectors cloaked in tired skin.‘You dan?” “yep”- “jump in”.Sinewy arms cranked the wheel around, the metal of the doors rattled.“This path ‘ere, you see that one,?”Through the condensation and early evening mizzle I could make out the en-trance to a leafy, damp public foot path. “That’s three thousand years old, bronze age traders would of come down here, along the ridge right the down the river too trade ingots of metal, yes? ……..This was a rich place once, teeming with peo-ple, a centre of industry, yes?..........The Neolithic chieftains round here where important and powerful……oh hang on, got to see what this bugger’s doin’.”A bus gingerly reversed down the narrow road towards us, an agile arm cranked

Despite his years there is a boyish rogu-ishness that remains about him, mis-chievous, headstrong good humoured, creative and learned. Colin can talk for hours on all sorts of subjects, an intellec-tual barrage of ideas, facts, opinions and insights, a single conversation can have you considering all kinds of things you didn’t know, that you didn’t know. ‘Creative people have a strong affin-ity with the natural world yes?, if you consider yourself creative, then you haft to appreciate nature yes?, the form and shape of it, the aesthetics, the design, the intricacies of it all, not necessarily in a religious way, on a purely creative level yes?’ Colin’s understanding of his land is all encompassing, a full spectrum of per-spectives: the geological, historical, anthropological, biological, ecological, cultural, political, social and aesthetic.

Colin pulls strands from each of these disciplines and more, weaving them to-gether seamlessly, bringing the landscape to life, reiterating a heartfelt affinity and enthusiasm for the world beyond it.He treats his role as custodian of this land as a privilege, like anyone who earns theirs the hardway; he understands that privilege entails responsibility. ‘60% percent turnout at the last election, don’t people realise how hard fought for our freedoms are? I take it you’ve heard of the chartists?’ To my shame I hadn’t. ‘Just up there in Truro, Richard Spurr, cabinet maker, he were a Chartist- one man, one vote yes? ‘eaded up the Corn-wall chartists, the local constabulary arrested ‘im in Pydar Street, cutlasses drawn, yes? Ended up in Eureka stock-ade, Ballerat Victoria, Australia,yes?.’On later investigation, I was to learn that the privilege that 40% of us squan-der, was largely thanks to the ideas and actions of activists such as Spurr, who believed that to be a free thinking man of meagre means was indeed enough to deserve a say in how you where ruled, and that impresses self-made men with egalitarian leanings like Colin.No stranger to graft and struggle Colin trained as an apprentice, once an accom-plished chippie he then went on to put himself through art college doing evening classes (he remains a talented painter), later setting up the first co-operative in Cornwall up at Flushing Quay, where he made his money as part of a fish co-op, then going on to buy the 200 acre farm at Malpass on a massive mortgage that meant him, ‘farming every square inch’’ to make the land pay, eventually manag-ing to shed his mortgage which has ena-

bled him to take on this latest endeavour. A brief history of the future

‘The Fossil fuel age is coming to a close! It was great, but didn’t last long did it?’ After hundreds of years of reaping its bounty, returning very little, a largely de-nuded land won’t suddenly be able to sustain us if we need to call upon it, if our fossil fuel resources do indeed dwindle. We won’t be able drill for trees, we will have to plant them and wait. Dunking a Kit-Kat into a cup of strong tea Colin explains that Moresk’s shel-tered, bountiful and defendable location combined with its proximity to the river below mean it has been settled for a very long time. He has found trays worth of flints, scrapers and globules of slag left over from the smelting process, as well as indentifying the site of a Bronze Age settlement on his land.The ancient woodland of Moresk was an important and sustainable resource for thousands of years; Neolithic groups would have eeked out a winter subsist-ence hunting, gathering, seeking shelter

and warmth within its depths, later pro-viding huge amounts of charcoal to fuel a centre of bronze-age industry, glean-ing the precious metals from chunks of Cornwall’s ancient geology, followed by generations of agriculturalists and horti-culturalists who de-nuded the forest and cultivated the soil beneath.This deep seated understanding of Mo-resk’s past underpins a broad, no-non-sense perspective of the future and Colin has clear vision for Moresk’s role in it. With help of his committed, highly knowledgeable and hardworking right hand man Rob the pair have managed to plant 90,000 thousand native trees and formed several well established large ponds to attract wildlife into the forest and restore existing woodland all in less than ten years. Funded almost completely from his own pocket, vast tracts of Colin’s land have been opened allow direct pub-lic access, putting in gates and pathways from Truro’s Boscowan gardens, he has engaged with local community groups

such as Truro running club, Transition Truro and provided 5 acres of land to local educational group Camp Kernow who are running an experienced based ecological teaching centre. Colin hopes to expand the project further by providing sixty organic allotments with secure rabbit fencing and a community association buildings to provide space for meetings and education as well tool stor-age. Bio-mass storage facilities, workshop spaces for local artisans and craft people who can once again start to use the forest as a resource to run sustainable woodland product businesses, eco-lodges to provide respite accommodation for young fami-lies and eco tourists in sustainable carbon neutral buildings. The idea is that Moresk will be able to sustain its self fiscally as well ecologically so that it can remain a refuge, sanctuary and meeting place long into the future.The future is always an uncertain place, but at best the future facing my generation

and those that follow does not look as rosy and bountiful as those that proceeded it. We (the human race) are going to have to share less with lot more people, our climate is becoming more un-predictable, we have to start to think and (most im-portantly) to act differently in the way we are to manage ourselves and our remain-ing resources, sooner or later we may find ourselves in a lot of strife indeed, with very few trump cards left to play. This is something Colin realises, like strummer, and Richard Spurr before him he is keen to meet the challenges of his time head on, without procrastination or lip service but with vision, enthusiasm ambition, commitment and the active pursuit of his ideals.Just a few minutes from the City centre of Truro with its mature woodland, off limit wildlife sanctuaries, the river flowing below, rolling hills and acres of new native tree plantings make Moresk a peaceful, inspiring and surprising place, perfect to

Above all I think Moresk will act as a reminder that we are all a product of the past, and that the privileges of the pre-sent where hard fought for and that they come with a responsibility for the future and that, as Strummer would say ‘is un-written’.

Dan Kerins is a Horticulturalist, Photog-rapher and Writer:

dafodildanphotography.photoshelter.com

relax and get lost in. Yet Colin is trying to develop more than just a park of re-claimed ecological splendor, he wants to inspire, to share his privilege and to allow people to re-engage with each other, with nature and with our history. Whether he likes it or not the forest of Moresk will be Colin’s legacy and as he once told me;‘Things don’t stop, everything is con-stant, always in flux, it moves in circles, on and on and on, we have such little time amongst it, things don’t die they just move on, further along in the cycle’