This 219 page book is subtitled “the bittersweet work of tending a changing world”. It is a very personal forest and life journey for Ethan Tapper, who has been a county forester in Chittenden County (my home county) for many years, and is now a consulting forester and landowner. Ethan documents his own forest-related journey, including uncomfortable times wielding tools that many demonize – chainsaws, skidder, herbicides, etc. – to bring his own forest back to native species dominated composition and repair years when that forest was the subject of land stewardship and timber harvesting that reduced its composition and diversity, structure, and was subjected to increased threats of non-native invasive species.

From the writing it is clear that Ethan is a devotee of “ecological forestry”, restoration, and forest management with a long-term repair philosophy. He observes the contradictory reality that his forest, left alone, may ultimately grow trees but not with the composition and structure that will provide both the greatest biodiversity and socioeconomic benefits it could. Some might say he is a reluctant user of the chainsaw, skidder and herbicides, but I think it would be better said that he is focused on the long-term “desired future condition” that he envisions, and that human intervention is needed to get. This is in the face of climate change, past human efforts that have degraded the forest, and the now constant threat of invasive species.

His writing is passionate. He sees the complications, nuances and challenges of ecologically-based forestry, and does not consider himself separate (as a human) from nature. Indeed, he describes many aspects of natural history – plants, animals, dynamics – that I know little about and benefited from.

I have had the opportunity to attend public sessions where he talks about his book and life experience, and also talk with him personally about the challenges society is facing in terms of forests. Now in his mid-thirties, he made the transition from public forester to the private sector in order to somehow contribute to positive change for forests, forestry and local communities. This is very much a book about Vermont, its forests and dynamics around us here in this state, but that doesn’t detract from what I see as a larger message that humans and forests depend on each other – we are both part of the ecosystem, with humans having the exceptional capacity to observe challenges and do something about them.

Ethan has moved from being a public forester to a now very active private sector actor – speaking at many events all over the USA, authoring a children’s book and a new other book soon to be made public. His public sessions are part presentation/reflection, and part dialogue with the audience. He touches on challenging topics like when, where and how to harvest timber, how to restore late successional old growth (called LSOG in some circles), and overall how to restore natural native-species dominated forest. His vision accepts that some aspects of old growth or what I will call the “historic range of natural variation” (“historic RONV) are touchstones for values we should value, but also reflects on the ever-changing nature of forests particularly with climate change fundamentally affecting what we can or maybe can’t go back to. To reiterate – this is a passionate book that I hope both forest/forestry specialists and non-specialists, or the general public, will read.

This review was finalized by RZD on Monday, February 9, 2026.