How to Love a Forest: The Bittersweet Work of Tending a Changing World by Ethan Tapper
This book tells a story so personal, so moving, so enlightening; it is about a forest that the author calls Bear Island. This forest had been severely degraded by a series of events over the last 200 years: clearing for agriculture, soil loss, regrowth followed by several exploitive harvests, introduced insects and disease, and a heavy infestation of invasive plants. This is a forest that Ethan Tapper purchased knowing that he had the skill to restore this landscape; all he needed was the will. The forest is also a metaphor for so much of the harm and pain the Earth is currently facing.
The book reads to me like poetry—and, to be more explicit, like slam poetry that emphasizes a refrain, that comes emphatically back to the point again and again with ever more depth and a chorus that calls to action. It is a poem of love, discovery, beauty, and confirmation. The message is powerful, and Tapper uses language with a skill that reminds me of other great writers including environmental philosophers Terry Tempest Williams and local Vermont author John Elder. Could Tapper be this generation’s Aldo Leopold? A bold question, but worth reading to find out for yourself.
When asked for whom this book was written, the general public or fellow foresters, Tapper answered that it was for the general public and the scores of like-minded foresters working to implement forest restoration and resilience. But this book is for all of us. Tapper has used his communication skill to become the voice of a generation, to make the work of forest care accessible to the greater world. He also moves the profession of forestry to a higher level: the level of love, reciprocity, and kinship.
One chapter of the book that feels particularly relevant to me in these current times is the chapter titled Freedom. This chapter describes the freedom of the individual and how that freedom impacts the freedom of others. How individual actions can at their worst destroy the thing that one loves and cherishes. Tapper asks in this chapter, “Could we learn to see freedom as a responsibility as much as it is a right? Could we learn to see that the true purpose of freedom is not to enrich ourselves but to care for this living world and to care for each other?”
I have never read a book about forest care so eloquent and deep in meaning. I will read this book over and over and find solace and inspiration in these words, to find a better way to share this story. I hope this book is read far and wide. It is certainly beautiful and wise enough to withstand time.
Recommended by Nancy Patch