Spring 2023 Planting Review

This spring planting season was a little delayed but full of fun and hope for the future of our forests, since many of our plantings took place on lands affected by recent fires!

We had great turn-outs at our Community Plantings at Indian Creek Campground (50 people), and our Girl Scouts (50 people) and Caldor Fire Bulldozer Line (80 people) Plantings in South Lake Tahoe. Despite news coverage leading up to our last planting in the Caldor Fire burn scar outside of Grizzly Flats, only 30 people showed up to this remote location. Many thanks to the dedicated folks who came out on a warm day and planted nearly 550 trees in the Grizzly Flats vicinity.

We reached approximately 400 students through our school plantings with North Tahoe Middle School, the Sierra Expeditionary Learning School, South Tahoe High School and the Lake Tahoe Community College. We also taught all of South Lake Tahoe's 3rd graders about forest health and dendrochronology at the end of May.

We rounded out the season with a Patagonia Employee Planting at Waddle Ranch outside of Truckee, with a special guest presentation by Jacquie Chandler of Sustain Tahoe.

Private landowners whose lands were affected by the Dixie, Tamarack and Caldor Fires independently planted over 300 of our trees on their properties.

Altogether, over 3,400 seedlings were planted this spring. Most of these trees were sugar pines, though approximately 780 Jeffrey pines were strategically planted on harsher sites where sugar pines are less likely to survive and 250 western white pines were planted as well.

The most inspiring part of our plantings was meeting community members whose homes and lives were severely altered by the Caldor and Tamarack Fires. Many hardy souls stepped up and pitched right in to help replant the fire scars they still very much call "home."

We are deeply grateful to all our partners who helped provide sites for us to plant:
California Tahoe Conservancy
El Dorado National Forest
Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest
Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit of the US Forest Service
South Tahoe Public Utility District
Tahoe National Forest

Special thanks goes out to Southwest Gas for sponsoring our Caldor Fire Bulldozer Line Planting and for sending their employees out in force to help plant. This was a very successful event.

The bottom line is that we are enormously grateful to all who joined us at our plantings! We couldn't plant thousands of trees without you! We hope to see you at our waterings this summer and at future plantings!

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Special Spotlight on the Walburns: Forest Stewards Before & After the Tamarack Fire

We kicked off the planting season with an event at Indian Creek Reservoir and Campground, which had been heavily affected by the 2021 Tamarack Fire that swept through the Markleeville area.

We were lucky to be joined by Tom and Linda Walburn, the former Indian Creek Campground Hosts who were the last people on site before flames engulfed the trees and campsites ringing placid Indian Creek Reservoir. Having Tom and Linda join us in replanting the scorched area they once called "home" for the summer was incredibly inspiring. With each tree they planted, they reminded us of the resilience of our forests.

Tom and Linda shared with us a fond memory from one of their many summers at Indian Creek: a cherished moment when they spotted a bear taking a dip in the cool reservoir in the heat of summer, just as they often did themselves. This dedicated pair looks forward to seeing our seedlings grow as the land around Indian Creek Reservoir recovers. They say that they hope to make many more memories in this special place.