sugar pines

Officially Earth Day is over, but the spirit runs throughout the Lake Tahoe Basin all year long. One way that the public can help the environment is to join forces with the Sugar Pine Foundation.

Fall is here early and the pine seeds are ripening. The Sugar Pine Foundation has set some upcoming cone collection days so they can gather those seeds for future plantings.

This year, there are not many new sugar pines cones, but the western white pine cone crop is abundant. They will be collecting cones from the newly identified resistant western white pine at Heavenly near Maggie's Run on Tuesday, September 15 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. This is the first known resistant western white pine in our seed zone 772, so they are very excited!

Join the Sugar Pine Foundation as they start their seasonal group plantings.

Community Planting Schedule

Saturday, April 11th, 10 a.m. - noon, 1286 Golden Bear Trail, SLT, CA. - Join Vail employees and South Lake Tahoe Resource Center families to plant sugar pines behind the Lake Valley Fire Protection Station.

Sunday, April 12th, 10 a.m.- 1 p.m., Waddle Ranch, Truckee, CA -

The fall planting season for the sugar pine tree is underway around Lake Tahoe. The public is invited to join the Sugar Pine Foundation in any (or all) of their four scheduled plantings.

The Sugar Pine Foundation's Fall Planting Schedule

Saturday, Oct. 11th, 11-1pm - Rubicon McKinley Planting, 6445 Chamberland Drive, Tahoe National Forest, Tahoma, CA

Saturday, Oct. 18th, 10-12pm - Kingsbury Middle School Planting, 1900 Echo Court, Toiyabe National Forest, Glenbrook, NV

Come learn about this spectacular trees at the Sugar Pine Foundation Presentation. Did you know that sugar pines are the largest pines in the world? And they have the longest cones? Come to a discussion of white pines and local forestry issues with the Executive Director of the Sugar Pine Foundation, Maria Mircheva. You will see a video of their work climbing trees to collect seeds and be able to examine their giant slingshot first hand. 
 

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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:

Join the Sugar Pine Foundation for a night of fun and fundraising at Harveys Hard Rock Cafe.
Festivities start at 6pm with dinner and live commentary on the Sugar Pine Foundation film. There will be a terrific silent auction closing at 8:30pm, limited edition Hard Rock Sugar Pine pins for sale, and drink specials while our local band Thick as Thieves plays 9-11pm.

Lake of the Sky Outfitters is proud to host The Sugar Pine Foundation on Thursday September 27th from 7:00pm to 9:00pm at 1023 Emerald Bay Rd. Come and hear about the important work the Foundation is doing to save the magnificant Sugar Pine, and all other Sierra Nevada five needle pines, from the invasive Asian Blister Rust Fungus. This disease is decimating stands of Sugar Pines in the basin and elsewhere in the range.

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“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not” — Dr. Seuss
As you may know, sugar pines and other white pines are plagued by a non-native invasive pathogen. White pine blister rust kills about 90 percent of sugar pines it infects. Scientists and restoration managers have agreed that the only effective restoration strategy is to identify seed trees resistant to the rust and plant their progeny. That is exactly what the Sugar Pine Foundation does and you can help too. Last fall, a volunteer described planting sugar pines as “creating life in our neck of the woods.”

The Sugar Pine Foundation plans to plant 15000 young sugar pines and other native tree seedlings throughout the Lake Tahoe region now through November. During this time, the soil is naturally moistene...