Ethan Tapper

Ethan Tapper is a Vermont-based forester, author, content creator and musician. He is the author of How to Love a Forest: The Bittersweet Work of Tending a Changing World, published in September, 2024.

Ethan Tapper

Early life

Tapper grew up in Saxtons River, Vermont. Self-described as somewhat aimless in high school, he nevertheless graduated third in his class and received a prestigious Green and Gold Scholarship^[1] to the University of Vermont.^[2] Unsure of his best course of study, he enrolled in a 6-month wilderness experience that influenced him deeply, leading to years of work as a wilderness guide. When the scholarship required his return to college, he re-enrolled as a forestry major.^[2] He graduated in 2012 from UVM's Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources with a Forestry degree.^[3]

Forestry

After graduating, Tapper worked as a consulting forester with Fountains Forestry of Montpelier, Vermont. In June 2016, he became Vermont's Chittenden County Forester, at 26 the youngest ever in the 75-year history of the county forester program, a role that he held from 2016 to 2024.^[3][4] In that role, he advised and consulted with local landowners, towns, and businesses on the long-term management of their forests. He also worked to engage local communities in their shared ownership and stewardship of the land.^[5] Today, Tapper practices forestry through his consulting forestry business - Bear Island Forestry - and manages his own 175-acre homestead, working forest, orchard and sugarbush in Bolton, Vermont, which he calls Bear Island.^[6] He's been endorsed by Audubon as a bird-friendly forester and bird-friendly maple sugarmaker.^[7]

Writing

As Chittenden County Forester, Tapper wrote regularly for local newspapers and other periodicals on general forestry topics.^[8] Seeking to tell a more broad and personal story, in 2024 he published his first book How to Love a Forest: The Bittersweet Work of Tending a Changing World.^[9] The book was well-received, garnered positive attention from statewide and national media, and was endorsed by Bill McKibben, Doug Tallamy and Ben Goldfarb, among others.^[10][11]

Tapper's second book was Willow and the Storm – A Children’s Book About Ecology, Regeneration, Resilience and the End of Life, and was illustrated by Frances Cannon. Willow and the Storm was Tapper's response to the idea that people often misunderstand the often-positive role that death plays in forests, and that this seemed linked to people’s difficult relationship with death in general.^[12]

Social media and Public Speaking

Tapper has an active presence on multiple social media channels, including Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and TikTok, all using the handle @HowToLoveAForest. Since 2024, he has posted hundreds of videos about environmental topics and has accrued hundreds of thousands of followers and subscribers.

As a service forester, Ethan led hundreds of public events in Vermont. Since the publication of How to Love a Forest, Ethan has traveled across the United States and Canada, delivering hundreds of talks, readings, keynotes and interpretive walks for conferences, conservation organizations and community groups.^[13][8]

Personal life

Tapper has been open about several struggles in his life, including the trauma of losing the vision in his left eye at the age of 19, a chainsaw accident that nearly blinded him in his right eye in 2020 and required multiple reconstructive surgeries, his struggles with ADHD, and his use of Internal Family Systems therapy.^[8][14][15]

Today, when he is not running his consulting forestry business, writing, or making videos, Tapper lives, works and writes at Bear Island, his 175-acre working forest, homestead, orchard and sugarbush in Vermont. He is an avid birder, a deer hunter, a maple sugar maker, and the front man, singer, and guitarist for the punk band The Bubs, based in Burlington, Vermont.^[16] The potential for incongruity in his forestry, writing, and musical lives is not unnoticed by the Vermont press.^[17][8]

Publications

Books

• How to Love a Forest: The Bittersweet Work of Tending a Changing World, Broadleaf Books, 2024 ISBN 9798889830559
• Willow and the Storm (with Frances Cannon, Illustrator), Green Writers Press, 2025 ISBN 9798989178469

Awards and recognition

• 2025 Vermont Book Award Finalist - for How to Love a Forest: The Bittersweet Work of Tending a Changing World
• 2025 Vermont Woodworks Council "Friend of the Industry Award"
• 2024 Massachusetts Forest Alliance "Friend of Forestry Award"
• 2024 American Tree Farm System "National Tree Farm Inspector of the Year^[18]"
• 2021 Northeast-Midwest State Foresters’ Alliance "Forester of the Year"
• 2020 Vermont Coverts "James B. Engle Award"