The Forest Year
Finding Hope in a World Worth Saving
$46.75
- Hardcover
272 pages
- Release Date
8 December 2026
Summary
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…
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781643266510 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 1643266519 |
| Author: | Ethan Tapper |
| Publisher: | Workman Publishing |
| Imprint: | Timber Press |
| Format: | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages: | 272 |
| Release Date: | 8 December 2026 |
| Dimensions: | 152mm x 203mm |
You Can Find This Book In
Critics Review
“The Forest Year is a much-needed reminder that nature’s quiet hope is always within reach, hiding in something as simple as a flower or in the wings of a migrating bird. Ethan Tapper masterfully weaves together his experience stewarding Bear Island, his forested home in Vermont, with sharp observation and tender reflection, inviting us to reconsider what it truly means to put down roots and grow where you’re planted.”–Andrew Conboy, @Andrew_The_Arborist, urban forester and founder of Community Canopy Project
“The Forest Year is a beautiful invitation to be curious about the natural world and notice nature’s rhythms through different seasons. Ethan Tapper reminds us that knowing a place deeply, and caring for it, is a profound act of stewardship. This book invites you to personally connect with the land and find belonging within its systems.”
–Rachael Tancock, The Nature Educator“The Forest Year follows in the tradition of writers like Robin Wall Kimmerer and Nan Shepherd, offering a gentle and brilliant look at the science and spirit of the great American woodlands and their attending wonders. But even more, Ethan Tapper shares a vision of one of the more difficult undertakings in this world’s current predicament: living a creaturely and neighborly life devoted to a particular place, and doing your damndest to heal a few old wounds in the process.”
–Ben Aguilar, The Berry Center“Tapper shares his experience stewarding a forest for a year, reflecting on biodiversity and the practice of caretaking.”
–Publishers Weekly“In The Forest Year, Ethan Tapper models natural history not on fleeting experiences with exotic trophies, but rather deep curiosity towards familiar neighbors. And for this humble approach, he is rewarded with durable connections to the expansive world of plants, birds, and the passing of time.”–Jacob Suissa and Ben Goulet-Scott of Let’s Botanize
“In The Forest Year, Ethan Tapper returns to his beloved Bear Island to chronicle a full year of his experiences as he restores its wounded ecosystems. Ethan is a rare man who has learned to look deeply into the heart of nature, see it for what it is, understand his place in it, and accept his responsibility to heal it. With touching prose, he shows us what a deep love of the natural world really is. Set another place at the table, Wendell Berry; Ethan Tapper has arrived!”–Douglas W. Tallamy, author of How Can I Help?
“In The Forest Year, Ethan Tapper takes us through the seasons and the hard work of healing a damaged landscape, showing that restoration isn’t transactional, it’s a relationship; one that begins when you see yourself as part of an ecosystem and commit to its health long after you’re gone.”–Griff Griffith, Conservation Storyteller and Host of Animal Planet’s Wild Jobs
“So much humility and wonder shines through Tapper’s prose, along with a keen sense of time, this time, and what it means to live deeply, with care and purpose, on a fragile planet. The Forest Year is a well-earned, luminous, and ever-more precious tribute to this northern forest we are both so lucky to call home.”–Helen Whybrow, author of The Salt Stones: Seasons of a Shepherd’s Life
“This is a beautiful book, full of respect for the land and a quiet call to rise to the occasion of stewardship; paying attention where it is due. If many in Ethan Tapper’s generation follow his model of being in the world, the world will be in better hands.”–Kenneth M. Cadow, author of Gather
Ethan Tapper
Ethan Tapper is a forester, author, speaker, digital creator, and advocate for forests and responsible ecosystem stewardship. His first book, How to Love a Forest: The Bittersweet Work of Tending a Changing World, was released in September 2024. The book has since been named a bestseller by the Northeast Independent Booksellers Association (NEIBA), is in its seventh printing, and was a finalist for the Vermont Book Award.
Ethan is a passionate advocate for forests and other ecosystems, skilled at sharing his passion across multiple platforms. Since 2023, he has built a social media following of more than 85,000 across Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok.
Ethan is also a decorated forester with his own consulting forestry business, Bear Island Forestry. When he is not writing, on speaking tours, or creating social media content, Ethan lives and works at Bear Island, his 175-acre working forest, homestead, orchard, and sugarbush. He also plays in a ten-piece punk band called The Bubs.
Returns
This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.