Blog
Introducing Carly Mangan
We are thrilled to have Carly Mangan taking the lead on our social media campaigns and outreach this year! Carly started working with the Sugar Pine Foundation in January and has been doing a fantastic job supporting our small organization in many ways – even though she works another job full time!
Recent Feature In Reno Gazette Journal
A thick blanket of snow covers the Tahoe Basin, its grasses and trees dormant as they wait for spring.
But tucked in an office on the southwest shore of Lake Tahoe, Sugar Pine Foundation Executive Director Maria Mircheva is busy sprouting ideas for the coming spring that will shape the future of what Lake Tahoe’s forests look like.
Welcome Caitlin Firestone To Our Board!
We are thrilled to introduce and welcome Caitlin Firestone to our Board of Directors. Caitlin is a self proclaimed tree hugger who originally hails from the Midwest and is now based in Reno, NV.
$1.4 Million For LTCC Forestry & Fire Programs
The Lake Tahoe Community College (LTCC) in South Lake Tahoe is making great strides to educate and train the skilled workforce necessary to increase the pace and scale of forest restoration and management in our region – and beyond – and has secured major funding to support its new Forestry Program and long-successful Fire Academy.
Welcome Kristianne Hannemann To Our Board!
The Lake Tahoe Community College (LTCC) in South Lake Tahoe is making great strides to educate and train the skilled workforce necessary to increase the pace and scale of forest restoration and management in our region – and beyond – and has secured major funding to support its new Forestry Program and long-successful Fire Academy.
Funding Vs. Challenges In Forest Restoration
Public and private land managers, non-profits like the Sugar Pine Foundation, and other entities have been engaged in forest restoration for decades. Yet the concept only recently gained public and political attention and the term “forest restoration” became somewhat of a buzzword when intense wildfires in 2020 and 2021 wreaked havoc across the West and people sought a solution to turn to.
13,800 Trees Planted Fall 2022!
Most of our seedlings that went into the ground this fall were planted in recent burns – namely the Caldor, Tamarack and Loyalton Fire scars.
Everyone remembers last year’s infamous Caldor Fire, but the Tamarack Fire was also burning just south of Lake Tahoe the month before. It scorched 68,637 acres and almost wiped out neighboring Markleeville and Grover Hot Springs State Park.
September is Cone Collection Season!
There is a bumper crop of cones on our known blister rust resistant sugar pines around Lake Tahoe this year! With the critical help of arborist Ben Cavalier and our own Edric Alvarez, we have been busy climbing these “seed trees” to collect as many of their precious cones as possible for our restoration work. We are on track to collect about 100 bushel bags of seed containing roughly 200,000 seeds this season!
Sugar Pine Restoration Cone Collections on KOLO-TV
Many of us may not be able to identify a Sugar Pine, but the cones can’t be missed. They sometimes grow to more than 12 inches long.
It is the pinecones which may one day help the magnificent species return in full to the Tahoe Basin.
Thank You, Watering Heroes!
Watering baby seedlings through the hot summer months is enormously beneficial for their survival. We are seeing up to 50% greater survival on watered sites, which is terrific! We are SUPER grateful to all of our fantastic volunteers that have joined our watering events this summer on North and South Shores.
#2 and #3 Tallest Giant Sequoias Found - and Lost?
This feature on how Michael Taylor and Steve Sillett’s team discovered the second and third tallest giant sequoias in Sequoia National Park last summer – only for the KNP Complex Fire to rip through the area just months later – is hauntingly appropriate as the Washburn Fire burns around Yosemite National Park’s Mariposa Grove of giant sequoias.
HUNTING GIANTS
Tahoe Quarterly Feature on Michael Taylor and the Sugar Pine Foundation by Matt Jones
California is home to some of the biggest trees in the world. Redwoods, Douglas firs and Sitka spruces that tower over the lush forests of the north coast. Giant sequoias of incomprehensible girth scattered across disparate groves of the Sierra Nevada. Stately sugar pines stretching skyward from the shores of Lake Tahoe, their massive cones dangling from disheveled branches.
Introducing: Lauren Benefield
OUR NEW PROGRAM ASSISTANT & LEAD WATER WARRIOR
We are thrilled to have Lauren Benefield on our team this summer - and (hopefully) beyond! She immediately applied to our summer part-time job opportunity and, when we met her, we knew that she'd be the perfect person to lead our summer Watering Evenings and offer general operational and administrative support.
