Ethan Tapper on Instagram: "How do we make our meadows better habitat with less work? For me, meadows fall into the category of “if you’re gonna have them, make them better habitat” — while in other parts of the country, grasslands and savannas are incredibly important and underrepresented habitats, here in New England they are (mostly) a MUCH less-important part of our landscape from a biodiversity perspective than forests (I often tell people that most pollinators VISIT meadows, but they LIVE
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Ethan Tapper on Instagram: "How do we make our meadows better habitat with less work? For me, meadows fall into the category of “if you’re gonna have them, make them better habitat” — while in other parts of the country, grasslands and savannas are incredibly important and underrepresented habitats, here in New England they are (mostly) a MUCH less-important part of our landscape from a biodiversity perspective than forests (I often tell people that most pollinators VISIT meadows, but they LIVE
286.5K views9 months ago
Instagramhowtoloveaforest
Ecology is local! (And that’s why you should connect with your local conservation organizations) When I first started working as a forester, my job was to learn about the ecology, the natural history and the stewardship of the forests in a relatively local area— in Vermont. When I became a County Forester (a public/service forester) I became even more specialized — an expert on the forests of a single Vermont county. Now, as my writing and my speaking work has taken me to forests across North Am
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Ecology is local! (And that’s why you should connect with your local conservation organizations) When I first started working as a forester, my job was to learn about the ecology, the natural history and the stewardship of the forests in a relatively local area— in Vermont. When I became a County Forester (a public/service forester) I became even more specialized — an expert on the forests of a single Vermont county. Now, as my writing and my speaking work has taken me to forests across North Am
16.4K views3 months ago
FacebookEthan Tapper
How can we help forests “be themselves?” This is a video that I’m reposting from 2024, that speaks to this story that I see repeated across this landscape, again and again — these forests that are defined by their agricultural history, and haven’t yet had time to find their way back to how they have been on this landscape for millennia. Sometimes we can let forests go their own way, and sometimes it’s important to recognize the depth and the breadth of the changes that our ecosystems and our bio
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How can we help forests “be themselves?” This is a video that I’m reposting from 2024, that speaks to this story that I see repeated across this landscape, again and again — these forests that are defined by their agricultural history, and haven’t yet had time to find their way back to how they have been on this landscape for millennia. Sometimes we can let forests go their own way, and sometimes it’s important to recognize the depth and the breadth of the changes that our ecosystems and our bio
46.2K views7 months ago
FacebookEthan Tapper
Forest management is inherently hard to understand — especially when it involves cutting beautiful trees and changing beautiful forests. What do we do about that? In my experience, one of the most powerful things that you can do is to reach out to the conservation organizations and professionals where you are — people that are engaged in deep relationship and deep responsibility with ecosystems — and listen to them with an open mind. I think that, in many cases, you’ll be surprised what they tel
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Forest management is inherently hard to understand — especially when it involves cutting beautiful trees and changing beautiful forests. What do we do about that? In my experience, one of the most powerful things that you can do is to reach out to the conservation organizations and professionals where you are — people that are engaged in deep relationship and deep responsibility with ecosystems — and listen to them with an open mind. I think that, in many cases, you’ll be surprised what they tel
15.5K views10 months ago
FacebookEthan Tapper
Behind the scenes on an ecological forestry project! Forestry can be messy, jarring and confusing, so I wanted to take you “behind the scenes” and describe how I decided to do this one, on one of my clients’ lands. This parcel was almost 100% dominated by a near-monoculture of very-unhealthy white pine — a legacy of the fact that it was managed as a pasture for 150 years, finally abandoned in the 1960’s. My goal was, over time, to restore it to a diverse, multi-aged, Hemlock-Northern Forest natu
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Behind the scenes on an ecological forestry project! Forestry can be messy, jarring and confusing, so I wanted to take you “behind the scenes” and describe how I decided to do this one, on one of my clients’ lands. This parcel was almost 100% dominated by a near-monoculture of very-unhealthy white pine — a legacy of the fact that it was managed as a pasture for 150 years, finally abandoned in the 1960’s. My goal was, over time, to restore it to a diverse, multi-aged, Hemlock-Northern Forest natu
138.1K views6 months ago
FacebookEthan Tapper
How to Love a Forest — off-cuts! This snippet came from a video about foxes (if you can believe that) and gets into genetic diversity, biodiversity, climate change, tree planting and more. Genetic diversity (in our trees and other species) is a really important part of climate adaptation, climate resilience, and biodiversity. But is it possible to protect tree species’ genetic diversity as we try to help make forests more resilient in a changing climate? Biologist E.O. Wilson defines biodiversit
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How to Love a Forest — off-cuts! This snippet came from a video about foxes (if you can believe that) and gets into genetic diversity, biodiversity, climate change, tree planting and more. Genetic diversity (in our trees and other species) is a really important part of climate adaptation, climate resilience, and biodiversity. But is it possible to protect tree species’ genetic diversity as we try to help make forests more resilient in a changing climate? Biologist E.O. Wilson defines biodiversit
16.7K views3 months ago
FacebookEthan Tapper
Time to do some more “unlearning!” Who ever said that caring for forests was supposed to be easy?! #forest #forests #forestry #forester #nature #wildlife #biodiversity #management #restoration #tree #trees #treesofinstagram #stem #love | Ethan Tapper
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Time to do some more “unlearning!” Who ever said that caring for forests was supposed to be easy?! #forest #forests #forestry #forester #nature #wildlife #biodiversity #management #restoration #tree #trees #treesofinstagram #stem #love | Ethan Tapper
37.4K viewsApr 14, 2025
FacebookEthan Tapper
1:59
Behind the scenes on a (confusing) ecological forestry project — see description for full details!
42.9K views6 months ago
YouTubeEthan Tapper
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Tell me your conservation success story! When you’re caring for ecosystems in the face of seemingly endless challenges, it’s easy to put your head down and grind and to forget how far we’ve come — and to forget to tell the others what is possible. Let’s change that! I’ll go first. #forest #forestry #forester #nature #restoration #work #conservation #ecosystem #equipment #management #stem #love | Ethan Tapper
47.6K viewsMar 20, 2025
FacebookEthan Tapper
1:20
In forestry we spend a lot of time trying to increase the “resilience” of our forests and to decrease their “vulnerability.” One of the most important ways that we do that is by taking action to increase forests’ species diversity (different species of trees) and structural diversity (AKA “multi-generationality” — different sizes and ages of trees). Managing for multi-generationality does a bunch of different things: it improves the resilience of forests to extreme weather events; creates divers
22.4K viewsJan 15, 2025
FacebookEthan Tapper
1:16
We did it! What a joy and what an honor it continues to be to dedicate my life to the work of healing this precious world and caring for these irreplaceable ecosystems and building this movement. The work continues, but today — on my birthday — I just want to acknowledge how honored and grateful I am for the part of this that I’ve gotten to play over the past year. Thank you for making it possible! #forest #nature #outdoor #outdoors #forester #author #life #lessons #lesson #birthday #tree #trees
25K views9 months ago
FacebookEthan Tapper
1:20
Hot take — lawns are dumb. But there are almost always going to be some areas that we want to or need to keep “open” — to keep from reverting to forest. So what I do is maintain them by just not letting them grow trees, which allows me to prevent these areas from reverting to forest while fostering the richest habitat possible (and yes of course killing nonnative plants/trees/shrubs is also part of this!). Even our “open” areas can be so much more diverse and complex! #forest #forests #woods #na
28.8K viewsApr 27, 2025
FacebookEthan Tapper
1:48
Why do we preemptively harvest some ash trees in the time of the emerald ash borer (EAB)? There is a lot more to say about managing forests in light of EAB — as well as managing ash trees in our communities — but I ended up cutting a lot of ash trees at Bear Island this winter and I wanted to express some of the nuance behind it. I’ll make some more videos in the future to dig into EAB management more specifically! #forest #forests #tree #trees #treesofinstagram #woods #wood #timber #nature #for
48.7K viewsMar 6, 2025
FacebookEthan Tapper
1:53
How can the generations of trees in a forest tell us about its history?? Forests do this amazing thing — when they experience disturbances, when space is opened in the canopy, when light reaches the forest floor — they “regenerate,” filling that space with a new generation of trees. This quality is so fundamental to forests’ identity and their function that we can actually use it as a tool to reveal secrets about their history. When I’m assessing a forest, one thing I like to do is to think in a
64.9K views6 months ago
FacebookEthan Tapper
1:10
What’s one way to find a parcel boundary? Look for where the forest changes! (A digression from your programming about foxes to tell you about this nuance of reading forests — don’t worry, I’ll be back to the foxes next week) In the woods, parcel boundaries can be marked in a number of ways: with barbed wire, with stone fences, with axe-blazed trees and boundary paint, but sometimes it’s hard to locate boundaries on the ground. And so when I’m looking for a parcel boundary, one thing I look for
30.7K views4 months ago
FacebookEthan Tapper
1:00
Just some thoughts on working hands… #forester #work #hands #land #nature #forest #earth #management #story #love | Ethan Tapper
44.7K views7 months ago
FacebookEthan Tapper
0:53
“Advance regeneration” is another clever method that trees use to capitalize on disturbances and to regenerate future generations of trees — basically, rather than creating tons of mobile seeds (like aspens) or seeds that persist in the soil for a long time (like raspberries, blackberries and pin cherry), species like oaks and sugar maple create seedlings that establish in the understory before (in “advance” of) when a disturbance actually occurs. These seedlings can sometimes wait for decades f
15K viewsDec 30, 2024
FacebookEthan Tapper
1:58
Bear Island is a 175-acre forest in northern Vermont. It is also a highly-degraded forest that since 2017 has been the site of a long-term restoration project led by yours truly — if you want to read more about this project, check out my book How to Love a Forest — with a primary goal of protecting and sustaining biodiversity. In this video, I’m doing what we foresters call “marking” — marking trees to be cut. On my clients’ land I am usually marking trees and then contracting with a logger to c
32.8K views3 months ago
FacebookEthan Tapper
1:34
I could honestly go the rest of my life without hearing the question: “what’s that good for?” To be able to use things from ecosystems is wonderful — but let’s recognize that the fact that something is good for US doesn’t mean that’s all it’s good for. #plant #plants #plantstagram #plantsofinstagram #plantsofinsta #nature #outdoor #outdoors #forester #forest #herb #herbalism #herbal #herbalist #forager #foraging #woods #love | Ethan Tapper
41.2K views9 months ago
FacebookEthan Tapper
1:03
Never give up! I’m reposting this video from 2024, because I’ve been thinking about this sentiment more and more this summer. Go plant a tree! #forest #forests #nature #tree #trees #restoration #heal #healing #management #work #outdoor #outdoors #forester #forestry #wildlife #stem #love | Ethan Tapper
15.8K views11 months ago
FacebookEthan Tapper
0:12
Of all the strange arguments that folks use to justify the presence of nonnative invasive plants and our inaction toward them, this might be the one that bothers me the most. It’s really important that we have the humility to acknowledge that just because something has some marginal human value doesn’t give us license to promote it at the expense of the ecosystems and species that sustain all life on this planet — our lives included. If you make or use medicine from knotweed or barberry or anoth
22.1K viewsDec 22, 2024
FacebookEthan Tapper
1:32
The effect of the last two hundred years of land use in the Northeastern US cannot be overstated! Sometimes when I find a cellar hole in the woods it really drives home what an incredible impact the last couple centuries have had on our forests, how altered and degraded they are, and what a miracle it is that we have any forests at all! #forest #forests #history #naturalhistory #nature #forester #woods #tree #trees #forester #stem | Ethan Tapper
307.3K viewsMay 17, 2025
FacebookEthan Tapper
1:25
Tough love/radical honesty time. I’m fully aware that this might cause some folks to unfollow me or get upset, but it’s really really important that we talk about it. I think that way the herbicide is used 99.9% of the time is completely inappropriate, but it is also the only tool I’ve ever seen be effective at controlling nonnative invasive plants — and if we can’t control nonnative invasive plants we can’t care for our ecosystems. Period. In working with hundreds of landowners with invasive pl
831 viewsAug 23, 2024
FacebookEthan Tapper
1:42
On this Earth Day I want to honor the environmentalists that have stood up for our ecosystems — and also to say I’m so excited to move into the new era of environmentalism! This new environmentalism is about relationship — how we live in this precious world — and also responsibility — stepping into our responsibility for ecosystems and for each other and for future generations. It’s about stopping doing bad stuff and also starting doing good stuff — recognizing that we can be stewards of this wo
3.6K viewsApr 22, 2025
FacebookEthan Tapper
1:14:21
Adopting a Land Steward Mindset with Ethan Tapper | Wired to Hunt Ep. 899
1.7K viewsApr 17, 2025
YouTubeMeatEater Podcast Network
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10/09/25 How Did Ethan Tapper Learn to Love a Forest and Become a Social Media Influencer?
617 views7 months ago
YouTubeAcross the Fence
3:53
Ethan Tapper on the Shape of Forest Stewardship
814 views9 months ago
YouTubePenn State Extension
1:34:27
How to Love a Forest with Ethan Tapper and Mike Chaveas
78 views5 months ago
YouTubeLeopoldFoundation
2:08:20
How to Love a Forest with Ethan Tapper
78 views1 month ago
YouTubeGive for Grouse Initiative
1:30:24
Earth Matters: Ethan Tapper - How to Love a Forest: The Bittersweet Work of Tending a Changing World
148 views6 months ago
YouTubeDutchess Land Conservancy
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