Sugar Pine Foundation

Known for its gigantic pinecones, sugar pine trees used to be one of the most prominent plants in the Sierra Nevada, thriving in California and Oregon’s high elevations.

While they are a fairly hardy bunch, though, sugar and white pines in the Tahoe region were coming close to extinction when an invasive fungus named blister rust was introduced to the area several years ago. To keep the sugar pine population in existence, the Sugar Pine Foundation was formed, and every year more than 1,000 volunteers go out into the wilderness and plant around 10,000 rust-resistant sugar pine seedlings.

The Sugar Pine Foundation is supported by its supporters, volunteers, and community members who help sustain its conservation efforts. People are welcome to visit its online store to buy a sugar pine seedling to plant in their yard, adopt a tree, adopt an acre of trees, or even buy sugar pinecones—considered to be one of the longest and largest in the world.

Since 2008, the Sugar Pine Foundation has planted at least 137,000 sugar pine trees across 2,400 acres in Northern California as well as other native trees to help restore and maintain Tahoe’s legacy of healthy forests.

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