Sugar Pine Foundation Has Busy Planting Season Ahead

The Sugar Pine Foundation's goal is to save the Sugar Pine and White Pine trees from blister rust in Lake Tahoe by educating and and involving the community in hands-on forest stewardship.

The group has several opportunities this fall to help save the trees by planting seedling in areas around the lake. 850 seedlings have already been planted this fall and more will be planted at the following events:

Sat, Oct 19, 10-12 pm. Tahoe City Community Planting at Beverly Drive and Clayton Way, Tahoe City. Plant some sugar pines seedlings alongside Tahoe City Rotarians who are sponsoring the planting.

Sun, Oct 20, 10.30-1 pm. Truckee River Day Planting at Waddle Ranch in Truckee. Meet at the airport parking lot and carpool to the historic Waddle Ranch for a morning of sugar pine restoration sponsored by the Truckee Tahoe Airport and Northstar Properties.

Mon, Oct 21, 1-3.30pm. Environmental Science and Ecology students will plant at the Lake Tahoe Community College campus.

Tue, Oct 22, 9-1pm. North Tahoe Middle School. One hundred 6th graders will participate in a field day of planting, and learning about seed dispersal and erosion control.

Tue, Oct 22, 1.30-4pm. Sierra Nevada College Environmental Science class planting in Incline Village.

Thu, Oct 24, 10-2pm. Lake Tahoe School Planting at Sand Harbor. Thirty 4th and 5th graders will be planting and learning Junior Botany.

Sat, Oct 26, 10-12pm. South Shore Community Planting near the old Kingsbury Middle School. Plant alongside Starbucks employees.

Sun, Oct 27, 9:30-12pm. City of South Lake Tahoe Planting. Join city volunteers in planting trees near the South Lake Tahoe airport. A shuttle bus will take volunteers from the airport to the planting site.

Mon, Oct 28, 10-12pm. George Whittell High School Planting. Thirty-five science students will take part in a planting at Zephyr Cove Park.

Thu, Oct 31, 10-1pm Fifty South Lake Tahoe 6th graders will plant and learn Junior Botany near Golden Bear Dr.

Fri, Nov 1, 10-1pm Fifty more South Lake Tahoe 6th graders will plant and learn Junior Botany near Golden Bear Dr.

Sugar pines are the world's largest species of pine and they are dying from white pine blister rust, a non-native, invasive fungus. Though they historically accounted for 25% of Tahoe's forests, sugar pines now make up less than 5% of the forest composition.

For more information, visit their website.