Gabriel Hemery Explained
Dr Gabriel Hemery (born 13 December 1968) is an English forest scientist (silvologist) and author. He co-founded the Sylva Foundation with Sir Martin Wood, a tree and forestry charity established in 2009.
Career
He began his career at the Northmoor Trust,[1] now named the Earth Trust, in Oxfordshire. He later became Director of Development for the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland, returning to forestry to establish the Forestry Horizons think-tank in 2006. He is currently Chief Executive of Sylva Foundation, which he co-founded with Sir Martin Wood in 2009.[2]
He has played an active role in the Institute of Chartered Foresters where he is a Fellow.[3]
During 2011, he co-founded the ginger group Our Forests with other prominent environmentalists, including Jonathon Porritt and Tony Juniper, to provide a voice for the people of England in the future of the country's public forests.[4]
In 2022, he was elected Chair of the Forestry and Climate Change Partnership[5] 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's Sylva – The New Sylva – published by Bloomsbury in April 2014.[6]
He has written several fiction works including with Unbound Publishing (Web site: author page . Unbound Publishing . 7 January 2019.) Green Gold: The Epic True Story of Victorian Plant Hunter John Jeffrey; a biographical novel describing the true story of an expedition to North America by Victorian botanist John Jeffrey between 1850 and 1854. He has also written two short story collections and a poetry anthology.[7]
He is currently working on a series of guidebooks to British forests published by Bloomsbury, the first of which was "The Forest Guide: Scotland" published April 2023.[8]
In late 2023, his latest book "The Tree Almanac 2024" will be published by (Robinson Books, part of Little, Brown Book Group, with the Foreword written by Tracy Chevalier.[9]
Forestry research
He designed and established a new woodland and centre for hardwood forestry research; Paradise Wood.[10] 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.[11]). He gained a DPhil degree at the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of Oxford on the genetic improvement of walnut.[12] His research took him to the walnut fruit forests of Kyrgyzstan where he collected thousands of Juglans regia seeds for field trials back in the UK.[13] He then researched and published numerous articles pertaining to the silviculture (e.g.[14] [15]) and genetic[16] improvement of walnut.He initiated an agroforestry research project in the mid-1990s, combining free-range broiler chicken with newly established woodland.[17] [18]
Books
- Gabriel Hemery and Sarah Simblet – The New Sylva: a discourse of forest and orchard trees for the twenty-first century. 400pp. (Bloomsbury Publishing, 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, 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. (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2023). .
- Gabriel Hemery – The Tree Almanac 2024. 336pp. (Robinson Books, Little, Brown Book Group, 2023). . Foreword by Tracy Chevalier.
External links
Notes and References
- Web site: Hemery's Biography. Gabriel Hemery blog. 20 October 2010.
- Web site: Origins. Sylva Foundation website. 7 January 2019. 12 December 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20171212193602/https://sylva.org.uk/origins. dead.
- Web site: ICF Member's Register . ICF Member's Register . 9 January 2011 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110719102613/http://www.charteredforesters.org/default.asp?page=73&initial=H&mt= . 19 July 2011 .
- Web site: Our Forests. Our Forests on www.GabrielHemery.com. 8 January 2012.
- Web site: Call for urgent action to adapt forests to climate change. Sylva Foundation. 10 September 2022.
- Web site: The New Sylva. Bloomsbury. 10 March 2015.
- Web site: Fiction titles by Gabriel Hemery. Fiction Books www.GabrielHemery.com. 7 September 2022.
- Web site: The Forest Guide: Scotland. Bloomsbury. 7 September 2022.
- Web site: The Tree Almanac 2024. Robinson Books. 25 September 2023.
- Clark, J. and Hemery, G. (2009) Outcomes from 15 years of hardwoods research at the Northmoor Trust. Quarterly Journal of Forestry. 103, 212-219.
- Burley, J., Savill, P.S., Hemery, G.E. and Davis, J. (2004) The Britishand Irish Hardwoods Improvement Programme (BIHIP). In:International Oak Society meeting. Winchester, UK. pp. 148-154.
- Hemery, G.E. (2000) Juglans regia L: genetic variation andprovenance performance. In: Department of Plant Sciences.University of Oxford.
- Hemery, G.E. (1998) Walnut (Juglans regia) seed-collectingexpedition to Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia. Quarterly Journal ofForestry. 92, 153-157.
- Hemery, G.E. and Savill, P.S. (2001) The use of treeshelters andapplication of stumping in the establishment of walnut Juglansregia. Forestry. 74, 479-489.
- Clark, J., Hemery, G. and Savill, P. (2008) Early growth and form ofcommon walnut (Juglans regia L.) in mixture with tree and shrubnurse species in southern England. Forestry. 81, 631-644.
- Hemery, G.E., Savill, P. and Thakur, A. (2005) Height growth andflushing in common walnut (Juglans regia L.): 5-year results fromprovenance trials in Great Britain. Forestry. 78, 121-133.
- Jones, T., Feber, R., Hemery, G., Cook, P., James, K., Lamberth, C.and Dawkins, M. (2007) Welfare and environmental benefits ofintegrating commercially viable free-range broiler chickens intonewly planted woodland: a UK case study. Agricultural Systems.94, 177-188.
- Yates, C., Dorwood, P., Hemery, G. and Cook, P. (2007) Theeconomic viability and potential of a novel poultry agroforestrysystem. Agroforestry Systems. 69, 13-28.