Bert Guerra, one of our most passionate and committed North Tahoe Truckee volunteers, has been involved with our organization for a year and a half.
He first heard of the Sugar Pine Foundation (SPF) in the fall of 2024 at a Palisades Tahoe ski instructor staff meeting. SPF partners at Palisades were helping recruit volunteers for our fall tree plantings. Bert said, “When I heard the name, Sugar Pine Foundation, I knew I wanted to learn more. I was surprised I had not heard of them before.”
He immediately contacted the Sugar Pine Foundation to find out how he could be involved, expressing how he often feels “helpless” in the face of the climate change crisis. “The idea of planting and tending to trees that will long outlast our visit on this planet seems extremely worthwhile.”
“My work with SPF thus started in the spring of last year. I began by attending a planting session in the Davis burn area near Mt. Rose. There were literally dozens of volunteers planting sugar pine trees in the burn scar. It was a fun day working hard with like-minded individuals to plant a bunch of trees.”
He was hooked!
Bert continued that summer as a regular watering volunteer, working with a “great group” of fellow volunteers. “I was pleased to see sugar pines that SPF had planted years before, flourishing in our mountain forests. It may seem a small thing to plant a few trees in the mountains. Yet, I personally have planted around 200 seedlings in 2025, and watered many more. Doing so with other volunteers who have planted hundreds more seedlings feels like much more than a small thing.”
Knowing that the long-term seedling survival rate is around 25%, which is better than natural regeneration survival rate, he commented that, “If only a fraction of those seedlings survive, they will outlive us by many years.”
Bert moved to Truckee in 1997 and lives with his family in Glenshire. Retired from his legal profession, he now has more time for skiing and mountain biker. Bert wants his participation in SPF reforestation efforts to be part of his personal legacy. And he made sure to add, “Plus it’s a lot of FUN!”
Bert spends a good deal of this spare time volunteering for our organization and we are very grateful.
