SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – The Sugar Pine Foundation (SPF) has been awarded a $22,000 Community Impact Grant from the Tahoe Community Foundation to continue reforesting the Caldor Fire burn scar near South Lake Tahoe. The funding will support the planting of 5,000 native conifer seedlings across approximately 50 acres over the next year, with work concentrated at three priority locations: Fountain Place Road, Hell Hole Road, and Echo Summit.

For many South Lake Tahoe residents, the Caldor Fire is still a vivid memory: the smoke, the evacuations, and the eerie aftermath of a landscape transformed almost overnight. Nearly five years later, the burn scar is in active recovery. Hazard trees along roads and trails have been cut, piled, and removed by logging contractors, and in steeper areas hand crews have piled the dead trees to be burned. Some areas are recovering naturally with a carpet of young seedlings, but many hillsides are filling in with dense, flammable brush (ceanothus, manzanita, and chinquapin) rather than recovering as forest. These areas may not in our lifetime return to the open, shaded woodland that hikers, mountain bikers, and neighbors knew before the fire.

SPF focuses its reforestation efforts on key recreation areas. Strategic post-fire tree planting accelerates forest recovery, and SPF has already seen this play out locally. Following the 2007 Angora Fire, areas where USDA Forest Service Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit (LTBMU), California Tahoe Conservancy and SPF planted trees now support a young forest over 20 feet tall. In nearby areas where no planting occurred, head-high whitethorn has taken over, nearly impenetrable and dangerously flammable, right next to residential neighborhoods.

“The Caldor Fire scar is at our doorstep and affected many areas we visit on a daily basis,” said Maria Mircheva, Executive Director of the Sugar Pine Foundation. “This grant from the Tahoe Community Foundation lets us accelerate the forest recovery in areas that people in this community hike, bike, and love and bring them back decades sooner than nature could do it alone.”

The recovery of the Caldor burn scar has been a collaborative effort. LTBMU has planted approximately 15,000 trees in the Tahoe basin, while El Dorado National Forest and American Forests have planted an estimated 800,000 trees across the broader Caldor fire footprint. SPF has contributed more than 20,000 seedlings, working alongside these partners to ensure that reforestation reaches priority areas along roads and trails. By the end of next year, partners expect to reach one million trees planted in the Caldor fire scar, one of the most ambitious post-fire reforestation efforts in the Sierra Nevada.

SPF will plant across three focus areas over the coming year. First is the Fountain Place Road corridor home to the popular Upper and Lower Corral, Sidewinder, Armstrong Connector, and Saxon Creek mountain bike trails. Second is Hell Hole Road, a Forest Service Road that branches deeper into the burn area and opens access to interior sites where no living trees remain as a seed source. Third is Echo Summit, where many families have owned cabins for generations and are eager to see the trees come back. Planting here will help restore the forested character that defines the community and the views that people treasure. All sites have been identified and prepared by the LTBMU through a formal environmental review process.

Species selection is guided by elevation, slope aspect, and soil conditions: Jeffrey pine on warmer, drier, exposed slopes; sugar pine in cooler, moister soils on north-facing aspects; western white pine and red fir at higher elevations. To maximize survival, seedlings are planted on the north side of stumps, logs, and rocks which leverage natural shade and cooler temperatures during the critical early years of establishment. Staff will hand-water many of the seedlings through the summer. SPF has formal monitoring plots to track survival after one year and three years in accordance with Forest Service protocol.

“Through our Community Impact Grants, the Community Foundation invests in organizations that are creating tangible, measurable change in the Tahoe region,” said Aimee LaFayette, Chair of the Tahoe Community Foundation’s Community Impact Committee. “The Sugar Pine Foundation is helping turn recovery into action, restoring areas impacted by the Caldor Fire and ensuring future generations can enjoy healthy, resilient forests.”

Community Planting Events Across the Tahoe-Truckee Region

SPF is hosting free public planting events this October across both South Lake Tahoe and Truckee. No experience is necessary as SPF staff provide all tools and instructions. Everyone is welcome!

You can pick up free sugar pine seedlings for your yard at any of these events or at the Incline Recreation Center to plant before the snow falls.

South Lake Tahoe

• Sunday, October 11 — Caldor fire scar at Sierra at Tahoe Ski Resort
• Saturday, October 24 — Caldor fire scar at Corral Trailhead

Truckee

• Saturday, October 10 — Royal Gorge, Donner Summit
• Sunday, October 18 — Truckee River Day planting, Sagehen Summit
• Saturday, October 24 — Canyon Springs, Truckee

To view the full schedule, or learn more about SPF’s work, visit sugarpinefoundation.org or follow @sugarpinefoundation on Facebook and Instagram.