The Forest Year

Tapper's groundbreaking first book How to Love a Forest (called "beautifully written" by Bill McKibben) offered an optimistic vision for tending the woods. His new book, The Forest Year, lives inside the practice of staying, caretaking, and paying attention. Following a forest and its steward through a year of life, the book explores flowers, birds, forest ecology, and biodiversity while reflecting on what it means to be rooted in place, community, and the ecosystems that sustain us at a time of profound change. The Forest Year is a meditative and lyrical ode to the land, weaving complex scientific and ecological concepts with beautiful narrative prose, making nuanced ideas easy to understand and deeply resonant. Both place-based and practice-driven, Tapper writes not as an armchair philosopher or an academic, but as a working forester stewarding real forests in real time, blending emotional insight with ecological rigor. A moving account of what it means to persist in the face of change and to love a place through work, compromise, sacrifice, and humility, this book will inspire readers to think deeply about where they live and who they are.

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Praise for How to Love a Forest:
"If Aldo Leopold were a 21st century Vermont forester with one good eye and a contemporary understanding of power and privilege, this might be the sort of book he'd write." -Ben Goldfarb, author of Eager

"Ecological wisdom abounds in Tapper's story of restoration: wisdom that needs to be spread far, wide, and fast." -Douglas W. Tallamy, author of Nature's Best Hope

"Eloquent and thoughtful while also being informative and brimming with lush descriptions...Readers will see forests through new eyes after reading Tapper's compelling and compassionate call to action." -Booklist