Review: How to Love a Forest: The Bittersweet Work of Tending a Changing World
Genre: Nonfiction, science, ecology, memoir
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I've discovered Tapper's work years ago through TikTok, where I stumbled across his videos on forestry. I loved the way he talked about his work and how much he understood the nature around him, and I especially admired the way he manages to provide an easy, accessible overlook on things that are fairly complicated to explain. Naturally, I was immediately interested when I've heard he will be publishing his book, and I finally managed to get my hands on it a few weeks ago and it turned out to be a challenging, educational, and heartwarming read.
"How to Love a Forest: The Bittersweet Work of Tending a Changing World" is far from a textbook. Instead of focusing on the multilayered, elaborate, and intricate science of forestry, the author offers the reader something much more precious and valuable - a look into the delicate and resilient nature of the forest. Tapper dives into the specific decisions he makes when tending to his own forest called Bear Island, and analyses why he does what he does, particularly how he shapes the future of the place he actively works on changing. He illustrates his reasoning by highlighting the relationships inside the ecosystem - both living and non-living - and our own understanding of the world around us, and provides a delicate, but gentle redefinition of what a forest truly is.
Throughout the 10 chapters, Tapper focuses on different ideas and offers a simple, but effective introduction to them - from individual elements like wolf trees and pathogens, to broader issues like deer overpopulation and concepts like forest succession. Alongside them, there are mentions of specific species living in Vermont, as well as their role inside the forest. No organism is too small to be recognized in the text and their presence is celebrated and encouraged. Tapper breaks down all the connections in a forest ecosystem and goes through all the causes and effects that made it as it is today - the disturbances, natural disasters, changes in use and ownership, and the eradication and extinction of species. Bear Island and many other forests of the world are forever changed by exploitation and climate change, and the best people can do now is to study and understand the forests as they are and as they should be.
The chainsaw is mentioned multiple times throughout the book, and is regarded as a thing that can hurt an ecosystem, but also remedy its problems. Tapper confess that it can be a weapons of mass destruction and has served as such in the past, but he also sees is as a tool that grants him the power to direct the growth and evolution of the forest. By cutting a tree, another will have more room to grow. Death provides the opportunity for new life, which is a thought that spams throughout the whole book. The negative connotations of the end to a life is given a new positive meaning and aims to broaden the reader's view of nature.
As much as this is an introduction to the art of tending to a forest, it is also Tapper's memoir. His life experience is integrated in the text, guiding the proposed ideas, thoughts, and observations, and allowing the reader an insight into his fears, hopes, and dreams. The forest becomes an extension of his own existence, and his nurture of the nature around him reflect the care he requires himself. By tending to Bear Island, he confronts his own knowledge and questions his actions, bravely offering the reader the reality of his vocation and of him as a person - there are no perfect decisions, no choices without consequences, no mistakes without regret. Tapper doesn't shy away from admitting he doesn't know everything, and that he isn't sure whether his approach is right, but through that vulnerability manages to emphasize his courage - he would rather do something to aid an ecosystem in need, than stand beside and risk watching it crumble. By reflecting on his past, analyzing his present, and imagining his future, Tapper goes through his own phases in life and emphasizes that learning is a part of life, as much as it is of science and the work a person does.
The aforementioned topic ties to Tapper's exploration of the societal relationship with forests. The book examines how people understand the ecosystems around them and how they glorify the notion of an untouched old-growth forest, while they completely undermine the value of all the other phases and its resources. Tapper acknowledges where this idea stems from and analyses the damage humans have already done to our planet, but tenderly revokes it as the right approach. Instead, he highlights the importance of active managing, of helping the ecosystems prosper, of sustainable forestry that allows for the use of its resources, including timber, while allowing it to continuously offer all of its other services - habitat, food, shelter, climate, recreational potential, esthetic value... Forests are not only a mythical and delicate place people shouldn't touch, but an ecosystem that every living thing is a part of, including humans. Forests can both be protected and conserved, but also used and harvested which could benefit both the local community and the ecosystem itself.
"How to Love a Forest: The Bittersweet Work of Tending a Changing World" turned out to be a truly gorgeous book that explores all the challenges and problems that come with ecology, particularly forestry, in the modern age, but also invites for an active fight for a better future everybody deserves. Although the chapters are not entirely distinct from one another and some passages seem repetitive, Tapper managed to create a stunning love letter to forests and a wonderful summary on what it means to be a true forester.
