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]
During 2011, he co-founded the ginger groupOur 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.
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]
Gabriel Hemery – Don't Look Back. in Adrian Cooper (ed) – Arboreal: a collection of new woodland writing. (Little Toller Books, 2016). ISBN978-1908213419.
^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 British
and Irish Hardwoods Improvement Programme (BIHIP). In:
International Oak Society meeting. Winchester, UK. pp. 148-154.
^Hemery, G.E. (2000) Juglans regia L: genetic variation and
provenance performance. In: Department of Plant Sciences.
University of Oxford.
^Hemery, G.E. (1998) Walnut (Juglans regia) seed-collecting
expedition to Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia. Quarterly Journal of
Forestry. 92, 153-157.
^Hemery, G.E. and Savill, P.S. (2001) The use of treeshelters and
application of stumping in the establishment of walnut Juglans
regia. Forestry. 74, 479-489.
^Clark, J., Hemery, G. and Savill, P. (2008) Early growth and form of
common walnut (Juglans regia L.) in mixture with tree and shrub
nurse species in southern England. Forestry. 81, 631-644.
^Hemery, G.E., Savill, P. and Thakur, A. (2005) Height growth and
flushing in common walnut (Juglans regia L.): 5-year results from
provenance 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 of
integrating commercially viable free-range broiler chickens into
newly planted woodland: a UK case study. Agricultural Systems.
94, 177-188.
^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.