Dr. Andreas Kåre Hellum studied forestry at the University of British Columbia and completed a PhD at the University of Michigan. He went on to teach silviculture at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, where he is now a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Forest Sciences. A father of three, he currently lives with his wife in Edmonton and works as a translator of Norwegian, his native language.

Hellum is one of few Westerners to have visited the nation of Bhutan, which is located between India and China. While there, Hellum organized a Bhutanese foundation for forestry research, in addition to painting the local flora. His previous title, A Painter’s Year in the Forests of Bhutan is the result of his research and original artwork from Bhutan, which portray several species of flora never seen by North Americans.

Hellum has also written a series of handbooks on how to identify selected tree seedlings native to Bhutan, Guyana, Thailand, and Malaysia, and cites examples of what further work is necessary if reliance on indigenous tree species is to be pursued in reforestation.