viewing category: Announcements

Lucius Cary OBE has joined the board of trustees of the Sylva Foundation.

Lucius Cary

Lucius Cary - Sylva Foundation trustee

Lucius is the founder and managing director of Oxford Technology Management Ltd, which has specialised in making and managing investments in start-up technology-based businesses since 1983. He has a degree in engineering and economics from Oxford University, an MBA from Harvard Business School and was an engineering apprentice at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment, Harwell. After forming and raising finance for his first business in 1972, he founded “Venture Capital Report” in 1978 and was its managing director for 17 years. In March 1996, he became chairman and reduced his day-to-day involvement in order to concentrate more fully on Oxford Technology Management’s investment activities. By 2005, Oxford Technology Management had managed or advised nine seed capital funds which, between them, have made some 95 investments in early stage and start-up technology companies.

Lucius Cary commented on his appointment: “I am delighted to join the board of Sylva as it is a tremendously dynamic charity that has achieved a great deal in its first three years. I am excited by plans for Sylva’s development over the coming years and look forward to playing my part in reviving our wood culture.”

In 2003, he was awarded an OBE for services to business. Lucius is the owner of a small woodland and is a keen amateur woodworker.

Share

Comments (0)
Sarah Simblet

Sarah Simblet - Sylva Foundation's Artist in Residence 2012-13

Dr Sarah Simblet has been appointed Sylva’s first Artist in Residence. During her two year residency Sarah will be producing a unique catalogue of drawings celebrating our forests and trees. These will be featured in a major new tree book to be published in 2014, supported by the Sylva Foundation. Sarah will co-author the book with our Chief Executive Dr Gabriel Hemery.

The New Sylva  aims to be a seminal book about trees and forestry for the 21st Century. The book will be published by Bloomsbury in 2014 to coincide with the 350th anniversary of John Evelyn’s original Sylva published by the Royal Society in 1664. The New Sylva will bring the essence of John Evelyn’s most celebrated work to a new readership. It will integrate sensitively parts of his original, visionary and very beautiful prose, with a much-needed contemporary review.

Dr Sarah Simblet is a trained fine artist who specialises in drawing; exhibiting her work through her publications. She has written and illustrated three major art reference books published worldwide by Dorling Kindersley. Her most recent book Botany for the Artist, published by Dorling Kindersley in 2010, includes English language editions for UK, US, Canada, and Australia; and has been translated into Dutch and German. She first came to collaborate with the Sylva Foundation through our OneOak project, for which produced two stunning drawings including one of the OneOak tree, which has become iconic.

The New Sylva book website

 

The authors have established a dedicated website for the book project at www.NewSylva.com. Visit the website to read more about the book’s concept, its authors, and for latest news on progress.

Share

Comments (0)

Sylva Christmas Card

Christmas Card

Sylva's new Christmas card

We are delighted to offer our first Christmas Card: OneOak tree on a Winter’s night.

The image used is a stunning photographic portrait of the OneOak tree taken by Sam Scott-Hunter in 2009. The image captures perfectly the snow-clad woodland scene as the sun set on a cold December afternoon. Sam used a long exposure and then ran around the base of the tree with a lantern to create this unique image.

The cards are very competively priced, especially in our multiple packs. All proceeds support our charitable work.

Visit Sylva’s online shop

Share

Comments (0)

Annual Review 2010-11 published

Category: Announcements
Annual Review 2010-11

Sylva's Annual Review 2010-11

We have published online our Annual Review for 2010-11; our second operating year.

Highlights of the year included national media interest in our work, exhibitions for our OneOak project, and several research publications including two on the outcomes of the T10Q project.

We launched three new initiatives:

Sylva Scholarship

TreeWatch

myForest service

The Review is available as a pdf document in two formats: low quality for onscreen reading, or high quality formatted for duplex printing.

Visit our About page to download

Share

Comments (0)

The story of the OneOak timber being used by Carpenter Oak & Woodland in preparing a frame for a new house was told in a previous post: OneOak timber framing the future.

OneOak in timber framed house

OneOak in timber framed house, Gloucestershire

Earlier this week, OneOak project manager Gabriel Hemery, visited the site of the new house build in Gloucestershire. The timber frame of the stunning curved design, in which the OneOak braces form an integral part, was nearing completion. Workers from Carpenter Oak & Woodland were putting the final touches to the frame in readiness to hand it over to the builders to complete.

Share

Comments (0)
Sylva Online Shop

We are delighted to launch our online shop. We have some wonderful works of art arising from the OneOak project that many people have expressed interest in.  To launch the shop we are initially offering a rare opportunity for people to own a limited edition print of a pen and ink drawing by internationally-renowned artist Sarah Simblet. Over the coming weeks and months we will be adding other artwork and products.

 The OneOak tree portrait

A stunning pen and ink portrait of the OneOak tree drawn by internationally renowned artist, and author of Botany for the Artist, Sarah Simblet. Generously donated to the Sylva Foundation by the artist. All proceeds from sales will be used for our charitable work. Only 100 limited edition prints have been made, and each hand signed and numbered by the artist.

Sarah Simblet is an artist, author and teacher of drawing at the Ruskin School of Art in Oxford. Sarah made an original pen and ink drawing of the OneOak tree before it was felled in 2010. In the tradition of the teacher and art critic John Ruskin, her botanical drawings are a great aid to our understanding of the structure of plants by encouraging the viewer to study their intricate detail. Such meticulous drawings made by the human hand can be more compelling than photographs which are now commonplace in everyday life.

Printed with pigment-based inks on acid-free 310gsm FSC grade cotton rag paper, with UV coatings providing light-fastness in excess of 100 years. Double-mounted (where applicable) with off-white cotton rag board. All materials are sustainably sourced. Frames (where applicable) are made with FSC grade ash finished with natural wax.

For further information and prices visit our online shop.

Share

Comments (0)

 

The Forestry Regulation Task Force has today, 27 October 2011, delivered its final report and recommendations to Government.

The report, ‘Challenging Assumptions, Changing Perceptions’, challenges Government to look at the way the Forestry sector is regulated and is the culmination of 9 months’ work gathering information, engaging with and seeking views from the forestry sector.  The Task Force make 15 Key Recommendations, 26 Recommendations and a further 14 recommendations to improve existing processes.

Download  the full report on the Forestry Commission’s Forestry Regulation Task Force webpage.

 

 

 

Share

Comments (0)

Sylva’s CEO Dr Gabriel Hemery was invited to speak at an international conference organised by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation, held in Bangalore in India. It was part of the UN’s activities supporting the International Year of Forests.

The conference was on the subject of the Art and Joy of WoodRediscovering wood: the key to a sustainable future. It aimed to tackle the cultural dimension of wood that is rarely explored or discussed.  About 350 delegates attended from all corners of the world.

Gabriel Hemery speaking at The Art and Joy of Wood conference in India, October 2011

Gabriel Hemery speaking at The Art and Joy of Wood conference in India, October 2011

Gabriel’s talk, entitled Recovering Britain’s Wood Culture, outlined the cultural divide between people’s love of trees and of wood, yet an unwillingness to accept the need to manage woodlands for their wood. He presented an overview of Sylva’s myForest Service and OneOak project.

His paper will be published in the Conference Proceedings, alongside others.  We will publish a link when available.

Share

Comments (0)

Sylva and the Oxford University Department for Continuation Education (OUDCE) are holding a one day course on November 5th:

Trees and Woodlands of England: Past, Present and Future

Anyone with an interest in trees and forests is welcome. Why not come along and learn about woodlands in the past, the key issues of the present, and discuss the future for trees and woodlands? Places are still available.

Visit the OUDCE website to book online


Trees and Woodlands of England: Past, Present and Future – 5th November, Oxford

- What woodland history can reveal about past ‘wood culture’ – Mr John Morris, Director of the Chilterns Woodland Project

- The state of sustainable forest management in England today- Dr Peter Savill, Emeritus Fellow of Linacre College and the former Reader of Forestry at the University of Oxford’s Plant Sciences Department

- The future opportunities and challenges of our nation’s trees and woodlands- Dr Nick Brown, Principal of Linacre College and lecturer in forest ecology at the University of Oxford’s Plant Sciences Department.

- How the celebration of the OneOak tree project has engaged Oxfordshire communities and highlighted how a modern day wood culture can support sustainable communities – Dr Gabriel Hemery, Chief Executive of the Sylva Foundation

Share

Comments (0)

Sylva has produced a short film for the Forgotten Forests project run by Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.

Entitled Britain’s forgotten forests, our film explains that many of the forests in Britain are moribund and suggests that  people are increasingly disconnected from them.  Written and presented by our CEO Gabriel Hemery, the film seeks to challenge people to see the forests on our doorsteps in a new light.

Watch Sylva’s film Britain’s Forgotten Forests or read more about the Forgotten Forests project here.

Share

Comments (0)
Older Posts »
SYLVA

Charity registered in
England and Wales 1128516
and in Scotland SC041892

Company limited by guarantee 06589157

Copyright © 2009-12 Sylva Foundation. All rights reserved.

 
ABOUT SYLVA SYLVA PROJECTS SUPPORT US
Summary
History
People
News
Media
Contact Us
Treewatch
Forestry Horizons
myForest
OneOak
Donate
Volunteer
Shop

KEEP IN TOUCH
SYLVA facebook page SYLVA twitter SYLVA YouTube Subscribe to our mailing list SYLVA LinkedIn




Sylva Foundation, Manor House, Little Wittenham, Oxfordshire, OX14 4RA    Tel: 01865 408018