First Planting in the Caldor Fire!

Saturday, March 19^th was rainy, gray, muddy and wet, wet, wet but the conditions did not stop over 50 volunteers from planting 900 ponderosa pine seedlings in the Caldor Fire scar along Mormon Emigrant Road!  The planting was organized in partnership with the El Dorado National Forest’s Placerville Ranger District, who had already cleared and prepped the site for planting. The Forest Service also provided the seedlings. Our role was to help recruit volunteers: South Lake Tahoe Scouts of America, California Conservation Corps, REI Folsom employees and local community members answered our call for help.

Planting bare root seedlings requires extra digging – in the mud! – to plant properly but everyone did a great job!

This planting was just the first of many that will be needed to restore the hard-hit Sly Park area and beyond. We plan to work with the Placerville Ranger District and other affected ranger districts on future plantings that will include sugar pine, western white pine and other native species.

Around South Lake Tahoe, the Forest Service must first clear hazard trees along roads and trails before we can hold restoration plantings in the Caldor Fire burn scar. The California Tahoe Conservancy has asked us to plant in some of the unburned bulldozer lines that were created to protect homes during the fire.

On Saturday, April 30^th we will have our first planting in the bulldozer line created behind Mule Deer Circle! See below and stay tuned for more details about this and other plantings this spring!