An Evening with Flemming Ulf-Hansen

We are delighted to welcome ecologist and author Flemming Ulf-Hansen for a special talk this January.

Flemming Ulf-Hansen is an ecologist living in Somerset who worked on Exmoor from the early 1990s for over 25 years in the government’s wildlife bodies, working closely with the National Park Authority, other agencies, landowners, and farmers.

During his career, Flemming noticed Exmoor’s wildlife had been neglected in published work for many decades, with perhaps the exception of the battles over heathland ploughing. He decided to remedy this, and his experience has helped him marshal what is known about Exmoor’s special habitats and species in a new book. HarperCollins published his lavishly illustrated and comprehensive work in April 2025, the 150th in the renowned New Naturalist series, an 80-year-long list of quality volumes that probably has no rival in any other area of specialist publishing.

In his talk with The Exmoor Society, Flemming will emphasise Exmoor’s position as one of the three moorlands in southern England, as well as its peatlands and other habitats. Special too are some of the largest ancient oakwoods (our own temperate rainforests) in southern Britain, and he will champion the relatively unappreciated colossus of the coastal woods. He will talk about the conservation of national and European designated wildlife sites and bring out some interesting case studies from his long experience.

Signed copies of his new book ‘Exmoor’ will be available to buy after the talk.

Biographical notes

Dr Flemming Ulf-Hansen is an ecologist living in Langport, Somerset. He graduated from the University of Bradford and then gained a master’s degree from the University of Western Ontario. His doctorate on the ecology and evolution of grass weeds was from the University of Liverpool. He joined the government’s wildlife body, the Nature Conservancy Council (now Natural England) in 1988 and has nearly 37 years of experience of conserving wildlife and protected sites. He chaired the Somerset Environmental Records Centre for many years. He helped develop the early agri-environment schemes on Exmoor and then worked closely with farmers to implement these there. Particularly interested in ecological restoration, he was heavily involved in peatland restoration, chairing the Exmoor Mires Project through its formative stages. He was awarded a Churchill Fellowship in 2010 to study the ecosystem approach to habitat restoration, which involved travel to France, Bulgaria, and North America. In his work, he has also been involved in the management of grasslands, woodlands, heathlands, as well as invasive species control – developing a healthy loathing for rhododendron and Montbretia.