Ethan Tapper will be stepping down as the Chittenden County Forester on May 31 to publish his first book and to start a consulting forestry company
Vermont Business Magazine Since 2016, Ethan Tapper has been the Chittenden County Forester for the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation. In this role he has been recognized as a leader in the forestry and conservation community and received numerous awards and distinctions, including being named the Northeast-Midwest State Foresters’ Alliance Forester of the Year in 2021 and the American Tree Farm System’s National Outstanding Inspector (forester) of the Year in 2024. Now, Tapper is embarking on a new adventure. Tapper’s first book – How to Love a Forest: The Bittersweet Work of Tending a Changing World – will be published by Broadleaf Books on September 10, 2024 (pre-order is available now). Tapper will be stepping down as Chittenden County Forester on May 31 to publicize his book and to start his own consulting forestry business – Bear Island Forestry.
According to Tapper, he began writing How to Love a Forest in 2018, and worked on it daily from 5:00-6:00 AM for the next five years. He was inspired to begin writing when he could not find a book that truly captured how forests work, and also the reality of the many complex and bittersweet actions necessary to protect them in the modern world. How to Love a Forest is, in Tapper’s words: “a reimagining of what forests are, and what it means to care for them.” At its core, says Tapper, How to Love a Forest is a book about our "land ethic," in the tradition of authors like Aldo Leopold and Robin Wall Kimmerer. It asks: what does it mean to love a forest? How do we respond to the harmful legacies of the past? How do we use our species' incredible power to heal rather than to harm? How do we reach towards a better future? This world, writes Tapper, is degraded both by people who do too much and by those who do nothing. As the ecosystems that sustain all life struggle, we straddle a status quo that treats ecosystems as commodities and opposing claims that the only true expression of love for the natural world is to leave it alone.
In this tender and fearless literary debut, Tapper proffers a more complex vision. He writes that we must take action to protect ecosystems, and that the actions we must take will often be counterintuitive, uncomfortable, even heartbreaking. In striking prose, he shows how bittersweet acts—like loving deer and hunting deer, loving trees and felling trees—can be radical expressions of compassion. In this poetic and visionary book, Tapper weaves a new land ethic for the modern world, reminding us that what is simple is rarely true, and what is necessary is rarely easy. How to Love the Forest, which centers around Tapper’s own land – “Bear Island” – in Bolton, Vermont, has received the endorsement of multiple well-known conservation authors, including Bill McKibben, Doug Tallamy, Ben Goldfarb, Philip Lee, and Tom Wessels.
In addition to publishing How to Love a Forest, in June Tapper will be starting a consulting forestry company – Bear Island Forestry – that will provide consulting forestry services to private landowners, organizations and municipalities. Bear Island Forestry will also provide communication consulting services for companies, non-profits, and government agencies and will continue to offer walks, talks and other conservation education opportunities.
Tapper is very active on social media – follow him on Instagram, YouTube and TikTok (@howtoloveaforest) and on Facebook (Ethan Tapper).
To pre-order How to Love a Forest, learn more about Ethan Tapper, and learn more about the consulting services he offers, visit: https://ethantapper.com
[email protected] | ethantapper.com
