Fred Pellerin tells the story of the forest

A forest, for Fred Pellerin, was an expanse of trees with bugs in them. Until he became the owner of 60 hectares of land which never ceased to amaze him. And here he is in tune with COP15: in the documentary series There was a forestthe storyteller shares his learnings, but also the beauty and his concern to preserve the biodiversity of these woods that we often look at from afar through the car window.

“We rub shoulders with the forest in Quebec, but I don’t know if we know enough about it,” wonders Fred Pellerin. He does not place himself above the others: before buying a wood located near his village, Saint-Élie-de-Caxton, he knew no more than the average bear.

He became the owner six years ago, with no other ambition than to enjoy the view and a water point. “I bought it for the lake,” he says. I said to myself: we’re going to put a dock on it and we’ll come and have an aperitif…”

“Observing the trees change from season to season, the pleasure of making trails, of following the tracks of the deer in winter to find its ravages, of finding the spot where the turkeys are, of picking the mushrooms or the bayberry, of ‘go fishing, it was all a bit fuzzy for me,’ he says again. I couldn’t find myself in there. »

Little by little, by dint of walking in his forest, often with people more knowledgeable than him, his gaze changed. “Everything I saw took on a meaning, another value, underlines the storyteller. The documentary series was a way of teaching myself before teaching the world. »

A sharing of experiences

There was a forest shows him exploring his territory in the company of specialists with generous knowledge: a biologist specializing in lake health, another in insects, another in forestry, others in wild gathering. He tries to oxygenate his lake to stock trout, learns to log responsibly and takes a fresh look at the plants – sometimes edible – and even the bugs that surround him.

What is at the heart of the series produced by Patricia Beaulieu is the link with nature. What does Fred Pellerin feel very strongly and which is marvelously well expressed in a scene with Isabelle Picard, ethnologist and author of the Huron-Wendat community of Wendake: “On paper, you can own a piece of land, but when you are in the forest, you are part of the territory. »

This reflection alone takes on a very special meaning as COP15, the UN conference on biodiversity, is being held in Montreal. “We always place ourselves at the top of the pyramid as the only intelligent beast on this planet, we tell ourselves that species are threatened, that the planet is threatened as if we were outside of it, notes the storyteller. If we do a zoom out temporal, we must also remember that nature does not need us to exist. »

There was a forest does not seek to lecture, rather to share the beauty and well-being associated with contact with nature. “I have been living in this forest for two years now. It changes the rhythm. I lived on the main street in the village, it’s not Saint-Laurent Boulevard, but there were tanks, people, neighbors. Here, things happen at the speed of trees and it’s very slow, a tree, insists Fred Pellerin. If you don’t slow down, you’re out of phase. »

The love of the forest does not prevent Fred Pellerin from cutting down trees. There are even quite a few chainsaw scenes in the first two episodes of the series. “What we cut is nothing. What is regenerated in cubic feet of wood annually on 60 hectares is I don’t know how many times more than what we pick, ”assures the storyteller, however, explaining that he must cut down sick beeches in particular.

Fred Pellerin has no intention of becoming a forestry contractor. His little maple grove is only used to give gifts to friends. “We have no concern for profitability,” he said. What interests him is learning to live in harmony and balance with his forest: responsibly picking mushrooms and edible plants (to “eat from the landscape”, as he says), and encouraging people in general to take a fresh look at the woods around us.

Storyteller above all

His main occupation will remain telling stories. His most recent show, The descent to businesswas launched in September and its tour already extends until the fall of 2023. Other dates will inevitably be added: in general, Fred Pellerin spends three years on the road with each new tale.

“Getting on stage and telling a story is where it happens the most for me,” he says. Once a new show is launched, however, the storyteller has the free spirit… to invent other stories. “I have just submitted the first draft of the script for the next film to my producer and director Francis Leclerc, he says. This is the work that will occupy me in the coming months! »

There was a forestfrom Friday on ICI Tou.tv Extra and from January 14 on ICI TÉLÉ.