The Charlotte Library, Charlotte Conservation Commission, and Sustainable Charlotte welcomes Ethan Tapper for a signing and discussion of his new book, How to Love a Forest: The Bittersweet Work of Tending a Changing World.

About the Author: Ethan Tapper is a forester, author, and digital creator from Vermont. He grew up in Saxtons River, a rural village in Vermont’s Connecticut River Valley. As the Chittenden County Forester for the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation from 2016 - 2024, Ethan advised on the responsible stewardship of privately-owned forestland. He also managed Community Forests, administered Vermont’s Use Value Appraisal (“Current Use”) program, wrote a monthly column, and led dozens of public events each year. In this role, Ethan received numerous awards and distinctions — including being named 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.

About the Book: How to Love a Forest walks us through the fragile and resilient community that is a forest, introducing us to wolf trees and spring ephemerals, to the cryptic creatures of the rhizosphere and the necrosphere. It helps us reimagine what forests are and what it means to care for them. This world, Tapper writes, is degraded both by people who do too much and by those who do nothing.  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 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.