Dr Gabriel Hemery (born 13 December 1968) is an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

scientist A scientist is a person who conducts Scientific method, scientific research to advance knowledge in an Branches of science, area of the natural sciences. In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, ...

( silvologist) and

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

. He co-founded the

Sylva Foundation The Sylva Foundation is an environmental organisation focusing on trees and forestry established in 2006, and registered as a charity in England and Wales in 2009 and with the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator in 2010. The organisation wa ...

with Sir Martin Wood, a tree and forestry charity established in 2009.

Career

He began his career at the Northmoor Trust, now named the

Earth Trust Founded in 1967, Earth Trust is an environmental charity (not-for-profit organisation) which was originally known as the Northmoor Trust for Countryside Conservation. Earth Trust was initially established by the British engineer Sir Martin Wood t ...

, in Oxfordshire. He later became Director of Development for the

Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland The Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI) is a scientific society for the study of flora, plant distribution and taxonomy relating to Great Britain, Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. The society was founded as the Botani ...

, returning to forestry to establish the Forestry Horizons think-tank in 2006. He is currently Chief Executive of

, which he co-founded with Sir Martin Wood in 2009. He has played an active role in the

Institute of Chartered Foresters The Institute of Chartered Foresters (ICF) is the professional body for foresters A forester is a person who practises forestry, the science, art, and profession of managing forests. Foresters engage in a broad range of activities including ec ...

where he is a Fellow. During 2011, he co-founded the

ginger group The Ginger Group was not a formal political party in Canada, but a faction of radical Progressive and Labour Members of Parliament who advocated socialism. The term ginger group also refers to a small group with new, radical ideas trying to act ...

''Our Forests'' with other prominent environmentalists, including

Jonathon Porritt Sir Jonathon Espie Porritt, 2nd Baronet, CBE (born 6 July 1950) is a British environmentalist and writer. He is known for his advocacy of the Green Party of England and Wales. Porritt frequently contributes to magazines, newspapers and books ...

and

Tony Juniper Anthony Juniper (born 24 September 1960) is a British campaigner, writer, sustainability advisor and environmentalist who served as Executive Director of Friends of the Earth, England, Wales and Northern Ireland. He was Vice Chair of Friends ...

, to provide a voice for the people of England in the future of the country's public forests. In 2022, he was elected Chair of the Forestry and Climate Change Partnership which exists to help Britain's trees, woods, and forests to be resilient and adapt to a changing climate. With co-author Sarah Simblet he wrote a contemporary version of

John Evelyn John Evelyn (31 October 162027 February 1706) was an English writer, landowner, gardener, courtier and minor government official, who is now best known as a diarist. He was a founding Fellow of the Royal Society. John Evelyn's diary, or memo ...

's Sylva - ''The New Sylva'' - published by

Bloomsbury Bloomsbury is a district in the West End of London. It is considered a fashionable residential area, and is the location of numerous cultural, intellectual, and educational institutions. Bloomsbury is home of the British Museum, the largest mus ...

in April 2014. He has written several

fiction Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary, or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with history, fact, or plausibility. In a traditi ...

works including with Unbound Publishing ( ) ''Green Gold: The Epic True Story of Victorian Plant Hunter John Jeffrey''; a

biographical novel The biographical novel is a genre of novel which provides a fictional account of a contemporary or historical person's life. Like other forms of biographical fiction, details are often trimmed or reimagined to meet the artistic needs of the fiction ...

describing the true story of an expedition to North America by Victorian

botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

John Jeffrey John Jeffrey (born 25 March 1959 in Kelso in the Scottish Borders) is a former Scotland international rugby union player. He is an administrator for World Rugby. Rugby Union career Amateur career Jeffrey was educated at St. Mary's Schoo ...

between

1850 Events January–June * April ** Pope Pius IX returns from exile to Rome. ** Stephen Foster's parlor ballad "Ah! May the Red Rose Live Alway" is published in the United States. * April 4 – Los Angeles is incorporated as a cit ...

and

1854 Events January–March * January 4 – The McDonald Islands are discovered by Captain William McDonald aboard the ''Samarang''. * January 6 – The fictional detective Sherlock Holmes is perhaps born. * January 9 – The Teut ...

. He has also written two

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...

collections and a poetry anthology. He is currently working on a series of guidebooks to British forests published by

, the first of which will be "The Forest Guide: Scotland" coming April 2023.

Forestry research

He designed and established a new woodland and centre for hardwood forestry research; Paradise Wood. He was a founding member of the British and Irish Hardwoods Improvement Programme establishing a number of forestry field trials across the UK and Ireland (e.g.). He gained a DPhil degree at the Department of Plant Sciences at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

on the genetic improvement of

walnut A walnut is the edible seed of a drupe of any tree of the genus ''Juglans'' (family Juglandaceae), particularly the Persian or English walnut, '' Juglans regia''. Although culinarily considered a "nut" and used as such, it is not a true ...

. His research took him to the walnut fruit forests of

Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan,, pronounced or the Kyrgyz Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the south, and the People's Republic of China to the east. ...

where he collected thousands of

Juglans regia ''Juglans regia'', the Persian walnut, English walnut, Carpathian walnut, Madeira walnut, or especially in Great Britain, common walnut, is an Old World walnut tree species native to the region stretching from the Balkans eastward to the Himalay ...

seeds for field trials back in the UK. He then researched and published numerous articles pertaining to the

silviculture Silviculture is the practice of controlling the growth, composition/structure, and quality of forests to meet values and needs, specifically timber production. The name comes from the Latin ('forest') and ('growing'). The study of forests and wo ...

(e.g.) and genetic improvement of walnut. He initiated an

agroforestry Agroforestry is a land use management system in which trees or shrubs are grown around or among crops or pastureland. Trees produce a wide range of useful and marketable products from fruits/nuts, medicines, wood products, etc. This intentional ...

research project in the mid-1990s, combining free-range broiler chicken with newly established

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the ''plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (see ...

.Yates, C., Dorwood, P., Hemery, G. and Cook, P. (2007) The economic viability and potential of a novel poultry agroforestry system. Agroforestry Systems. 69, 13-28.

Books

* Gabriel Hemery and Sarah Simblet — ''The New Sylva: a discourse of forest and orchard trees for the twenty-first century.'' 400pp. (

Bloomsbury Publishing Bloomsbury Publishing plc is a British worldwide publishing house of fiction and non-fiction. It is a constituent of the FTSE SmallCap Index. Bloomsbury's head office is located in Bloomsbury, an area of the London Borough of Camden. It has a U ...

, 2014). . * Gabriel Hemery — ''Don't Look Back.'' in Adrian Cooper (ed) — ''Arboreal: a collection of new woodland writing.'' (Little Toller Books, 2016). . * Gabriel Hemery — ''Green Gold: The Epic True Story of Victorian Plant Hunter John Jeffrey.'' ( Unbound Publishing, 2019). . * Gabriel Hemery — ''Tall Trees Short Stories: Vol.20.'' (Wood Wide Works, 2020). . * Gabriel Hemery — ''The Man Who Harvested Trees (and Gifted Life).'' in Fiona Stafford (ed) — ''Stories of Trees, Woods and the Forest.'' (

Everyman's Library Everyman's Library is a series of reprints of classic literature, primarily from the Western canon. It is currently published in hardback by Random House. It was originally an imprint of J. M. Dent (itself later a division of Weidenfeld & Ni ...

, 2021). . * Gabriel Hemery — ''Tall Trees Short Stories: Vol.21.'' (Wood Wide Works, 2021). . * Gabriel Hemery — ''The Wolf, The Walnut and the Woodsman.'' (Wood Wide Works, 2022). . * Gabriel Hemery — ''Blough: an Anthology of Tree and Nature Poems.'' (Wood Wide Works, 2022). . * Gabriel Hemery — ''The Forest Guide: Scotland.'' 320pp. (

, 2023). .

References

External links

Forestry Horizons

Personal blog of Gabriel Hemery

The Tree Photographer - a photo blog by Gabriel Hemery

Gabriel Hemery's profile on GoodReads

Walnut Thesis

Institute of Chartered Foresters

Sylva Foundation

myForest Project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hemery, Gabriel 1968 births English foresters Living people British environmentalists Forestry researchers