California is home to some incredibly impressive trees: oldest, tallest, and largest! If you’re obsessed with finding big trees, California is a good place to look. For over 30 years, Michael Taylor – a professional big tree hunter, a fan of sugar pines, and a long-time friend of the Sugar Pine Foundation – has been searching …
Record Sugar Pines Discovered in the Sierra Nevada Read More »
Dr. Joan Dudney, our Science Advisor, has recently published a new paper entitled “Compounding effects of white pine blister rust, mountain pine beetle, and fire threaten four white pine species.” Joan and her co-authors studied long-term mortality trends of four white pine species in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks (SEKI). In SEKI, just as …
New Study on Mortality Trends in Southern Sierra Nevada Sugar Pine and other White Pines Read More »
Successful Seed Collection Despite Forest Closures On September 15, amidst much smoke and many wildfires that had shut down all activity on US Forest Service Lands – including our customary cones collections – we posted a simple plea on our Facebook page: “WE NEED HELP! The Jeffrey pine seeds are helicoptering down everywhere in Tahoe-Truckee …
Professional Arborist and Volunteer Extraordinaire Wildfires, forest closures and equipment issues cropped up for us right when we needed to access our resistant seed trees to collect cones in mid-September. The recurrent theme this year, however, seems to be: overcoming unexpected challenges with ingenuity and community support to carry out our mission. Enter Zach Armstrong: owner-operator of Armstrong Tree Service, who has …
It’s that time again: kids are headed “back to school” or are in school already! We know most youngsters are still learning from home these days, so we’ve put together a fun, new lesson on how to germinate and grow seedlings from seed! The Grow Your Own Sugar Pine From Seed Lesson is on our At-Home Activities page.This is …
Neighbors Jerry Rudd and Lauri Kemper working together. Jerry Rudd is 81 years old. Every day, he takes a morning walk on the wooded trails near his house. It is a daily exercise routine with a purpose: to water and care for 14 baby sugar pine seedlings that he has adopted, thanks to his neighbors, …
Living With Wildfire
Summer is here and – despite COVID19 – families are road tripping near and far! But have you ever heard of taking a family Tree Vacation?! In the 1960s, Ralph and Patricia Erwin of Federal Way, WA began a unique version of the typical summer family road trip: they went on Tree Vacations! The goal …
Welcome Dr. Joan Dudney! We are pleased to introduce Joan Dudney as the newest member of our team. Joan has graciously accepted the role of Science Advisor at the Sugar Pine Foundation, and she is uniquely well-suited to the job. Joan recently earned her PhD in May 2019 from the University of California, Berkeley. For the …
You can celebrate Summer Solstice on June 21, knowing that 7,070 new seedlings are in the ground and groovin’ to grow! Despite seemingly unending rain and snow, we had a wildly successful spring planting season: soil conditions were fantastic thanks to all the moisture, volunteer spirits were high, and (by some miracle) the rain held off whenever we were planting!