TRUCKEE, Calif. – The Sugar Pine Foundation (SPF) received a $25,000 grant from The Martis Fund in support of the Martis Valley Sugar Pine Restoration project. The grant will fund the planting of 5,000 conifer seedlings — primarily sugar pine — across approximately 70 acres of forest in Martis Valley and Eastern Placer County during the spring and fall 2026 planting seasons.

The largest single site is at Northstar in Martis Valley, where 2,500 sugar pine seedlings will be planted by a professional field crew on Vail Resorts land near the Tompkins Memorial Trail.

Additional planting sites span the region, with work coordinated across land managed by the Truckee Donner Land Trust, the California Tahoe Conservancy, the US Forest Service Truckee Ranger District, and the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit.

Sierra Nevada forests face an urgent convergence of threats. White pine blister rust (Cronartium ribicola), a non-native fungal pathogen accidentally introduced in the late 1800s, kills over 95% of the white pines it infects and has reached epidemic levels in the Tahoe-Truckee region, dramatically reducing the number of sugar pines, western white pines, and whitebark pines.

Climate-driven drought, bark beetle outbreaks, and high-severity wildfires are compounding white pine decline across the Sierra Nevada. Without active intervention, natural regeneration of these species is unlikely.

SPF addresses this crisis by sourcing and planting seedlings of blister rust resistant sugar pine and western white pine, alongside Jeffrey pine on drier sites, targeting burn scars, mechanically thinned areas, and other forest openings where diverse regeneration is most needed. The 2026 planting mix consists of 4,200 sugar pine, 600 Jeffrey pine, and 500 western white pine seedlings.

The project engages a wide cross-section of the community. Participants include Alder Creek Middle School 7th graders, University of Nevada Reno students, Truckee River Day volunteers, and other community volunteers working alongside professional field crews and institutional partners including the Truckee River Watershed Council and the Northstar Fire Protection District.

“We are deeply grateful to The Martis Fund for this investment in the future of our local forests,” said Maria Mircheva, Executive Director of the Sugar Pine Foundation. “Martis Valley is a critical area for sugar pine restoration, and this grant allows us to make a meaningful impact right at the heart of the Martis Fund’s geographic focus.”

The Martis Fund is a collaborative project of Martis Camp Club, DMB/Highlands Group (the developers of Martis Camp), Mountain Area Preservation (MAP), and Sierra Watch. This grant brings the Martis Fund’s total investment in SPF’s work to over $62,000, reflecting a strong and growing partnership in support of forest health across the Tahoe-Truckee region.

Founded in 2004, the Sugar Pine Foundation has engaged over 17,000 volunteers in planting more than 260,000 trees across the Lake Tahoe region. SPF will monitor seedling survival at one- and three-year intervals to track outcomes and guide adaptive management.

Get Involved

There are many ways to support forest restoration this year. Volunteers are needed this summer for Tuesday evening tree watering events in Truckee, and fall planting events will be open to the community across multiple sites. To find out how to participate, subscribe to the SPF newsletter, follow on social media, or visit the event calendar at sugarpinefoundation.org/calendar. For more information, visit http://www.sugarpinefoundation.org.