Davis Fire Scar Reforestation by Students - Media Coverage by News 4 Reno

Eagle Valley students get hands-on lesson in rebuilding Davis Fire burn scar
by Kenzie Margiott. News 4 KRNV, NBC Reno
Thu, November 13, 2025

Eagle Valley Middle School students traded their classroom seats for the outdoors last week—digging, planting and learning firsthand what it takes to help a forest recover after wildfire.

Members of the school’s Green Biz Kids club joined the Sugar Pine Foundation on Friday to help restore the Davis Burn Area in Washoe Valley. With shovels in hand, students planted native Jeffrey and Ponderosa pines, species known for their resilience and importance to northern Nevada’s ecosystem.

Foundation staff guided the group through every step of the process, from placing trees deep into the soil to making sure each one was firmly packed and ready to grow. Some students even gave their trees names, pep talks and songs—a personal sendoff to their new home on the hillside.

Students from Eagle Valley’s Career Foundations in Information Technology class also joined the effort, documenting the restoration through photos that will be shared with the Sugar Pine Foundation for future educational materials. Their shots captured both the burn-scarred landscape and the slow but hopeful work of rebuilding it.

This tree-planting trip is just the latest in a growing lineup of hands-on sustainability projects led by Green Biz Kids. The club launched in 2024 as part of the school’s Sustainability Action Plan and has since grown into a popular program connecting students with real-world environmental action. It also serves as a continuation of the sustainability work many of these students began at Empire Elementary School.

Earlier this year, club members helped coordinate Eagle Valley’s participation in Snapshot Day along the Carson River—a partnership with River Wranglers that gave 50 eighth graders the chance to conduct water testing and learn about local ecology. Thanks to the success of that pilot, every eighth grader in the Carson City School District will take part next year.

Other grades are also getting new outdoor learning opportunities: sixth graders are joining Flood Awareness Program activities, and seventh graders will take part in a “Carson River Science Day.” Meanwhile, the club continues its daily sustainability efforts on campus, collecting and composting about 20 pounds of food waste each week for The Greenhouse Project.

Looking ahead, Green Biz Kids plans to become official Stewards of the Trail through Carson City Parks and Recreation and participate in an educational series with the Tahoe Rim Trail Association. Their goal: to keep building the next generation of environmental stewards—one tree, one project and one student at a time.