Ethan Tapper is a forester and author from Bolton, Vermont.

Ethan Tapper is a forester, author, and digital creator from Vermont. His book How to Love a Forest: The Bittersweet Work of Tending a Changing World was published in September, 2024.

Ethan grew up in Saxtons River, a rural village in Vermont’s Connecticut River Valley. After graduating high school in 2007, Ethan accepted a scholarship to attend the University of Vermont, but — still unsure about what he wanted to study — left after two semesters to go on a six-month wilderness expedition in Vermont and New Hampshire. Following this transformative experience, Ethan spent the next few years in the woods: working as a wilderness guide, living on a primitive homestead in rural Maine and apprenticing with a draft horse logger. After nearly two years, Ethan needed to return to UVM or else lose his scholarship. He picked forestry out a list of degrees on a whim, because, as he says: “it had the word ‘forest’ in it.” He completed his Bachelor of Science in Forestry degree from the University of Vermont in 2012. After graduating from UVM, Ethan worked as a consulting forester on family forests and industrial timberland in Vermont, New Hampshire, New York and Maine, before becoming the Chittenden County Forester in 2016.

As the Chittenden County Forester for the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation from 2016 - 2024, Ethan advised private landowners, municipalities, conservation organizations, foresters and loggers on the responsible stewardship of privately-owned forestland, managed over 4,500 acres of Community Forests, administered Vermont’s Use Value Appraisal (“Current Use”) program in the County, wrote a monthly column for community newspapers that reached tens of thousands of people each month, and led hundreds of public events. In this role, Ethan received numerous awards and distinctions — including being named the Northeast-Midwest State Foresters Alliance’s Forester of the Year in 2021, and the American Tree Farm Systems National Outstanding Inspector (forester) of the Year in 2024. Ethan left this role to start his own consulting forestry business, Bear Island Forestry, in 2024.

In 2017, Ethan bought a 175-acre forest in Bolton, Vermont that he named “Bear Island.” When he bought Bear Island, it had, as he says: “every problem that a forest could have.” As Ethan worked to help this forest heal, Bear Island helped him crystalize many of the ideas that would eventually become How to Love a Forest. Today, Ethan spends countless hours working at Bear Island, performing the countless bittersweet and beautiful acts required to help this forest “reach towards wholeness again.” Where once he saw Bear Island as a symbol of the dysfunction of the modern world, now, he sees it as “a symbol of what is possible, a symbol of hope.” Ethan donated a conservation easement on Bear Island to the Richmond Land Trust in 2022 — protecting this forest forever.

Ethan started writing How to Love a Forest in 2018, after realizing that there was no book that captured his understanding of what forests are, how they work, and what it means to take care of them. He wrote the book over the following six years, one hour at time — from 5:00-6:00 AM each day. It was published by Broadleaf Books in September, 2024!

In 2024, Ethan also started social media channels on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook, and now is a digital creator with tens of thousands of followers and subscribers. His @HowToLoveAForest pages include videos about ecology, natural history, forest stewardship, and managing Bear Island.

Today, Ethan manages his businesses — Bear Island Forestry, Bear Island Consulting and Bear Island Maple — manages his forest, orchard, homestead and sugarbush at Bear Island, delivers keynotes and talks, creates digital content for his social media channels, is pursuing a graduate degree at the University of Vermont, and performs with his 10-piece punk band, The Bubs.

Learn more about Ethan on his LinkTree!