Last summer, in an act I can mostly attribute to peer pressure, I found myself watching the sunrise at the top of one of the tallest peaks in the Tahoe Basin: Mount Tallac. I’m not one for “peak bagging”—climbing peaks to cross them off some list of accomplishments—but this experience allowed me a look into the high-elevation environment that is home to the impressive but threatened whitebark pine tree.
This tree grows in conditions that many other species resist. Found on ridges and elevations just below the tree line (the elevation above which trees do not grow), the whitebark withstands winds regularly in excess 100 mph, heavy snows, fits of lightning and unobscured sunshine, usually while making do with poor, rocky soil.
The composition of the trees always stands out to me while I’m hiking. They’re often low to the ground and growing in clusters—warped, bent or whorled. There’s a term for these stunted and gnarled trees near the tree line—krummholz, or “crooked wood.”
Whitebark pines survive not only for themselves; birds like the Clark’s nutcracker, bears and other mammals depend on their nutritious seeds. Humans depend on their ability to maintain snowpacks by providing shade in exposed areas, which prevents premature melting (and possible flooding, or water scarcity during summer). Delicate landscapes, like that along the Tallac ridgeline, depend on the tree’s roots to stabilize the ground.
“It’s a keystone species, which means it’s basically the anchor of the ecosystem and one of the most important species in that ecosystem,” said Maria Mircheva, executive director of the Sugar Pine Foundation. “You chose a pretty cool tree to write about.”
While these trees evolved to live in some of the harshest conditions, they were listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act in 2022—because they are dying in unprecedented numbers. This is due to a fungus called white pine blister rust, as well as increased temperatures due to climate change and mountain pine beetle attacks.
The Sugar Pine Foundation works primarily with—you guessed it—sugar pines, but concerns itself with other white pines (pines with needles in bunches of five), like the Western white pine and whitebark pine. All white pines are susceptible to white pine blister rust, a disease with a 95% mortality rate for infected trees. The organization was founded to help combat the effects of the disease and operates with a hands-on approach to conservation.
Each year, the group collects seeds from trees to test for blister rust. Seeds from healthy trees that have resisted the disease are then grown into seedlings and replanted around the Tahoe Basin. They plant an estimated 10,000 seedlings each year, though not yet any whitebark pines.
“More work has been done to preserve sugar pine and find resistant trees, because it’s a commercial species (used for lumber),” Mircheva said. “But the higher elevation species—so whitebark, limber, foxtail, bristle cone—they’re not commercial species … so a lot less work has been done.”
In some states, like Oregon, whitebark pines with rust resistance have been successfully replanted. An organization called the Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation sowed 20,000 resistant whitebark pine seeds in April 2025. The seeds are growing into seedlings at a United States Forest Service greenhouse, and in two years will be transported for planting on the public lands where they were gathered.
“The best time to plant a tree is 50 years ago,” Mircheva said. “The second-best time is now.” However, she mentioned that replanting efforts have not happened in California yet, because no trees with blister-rust-resistant genes have been identified locally.
The Sugar Pine Foundation and others continue collecting seeds. In 2024, Friends of Nevada Wilderness doubled its seed-collecting efforts, sending seeds to the Lucky Peak Nursery in Idaho’s Boise National Forest for long-term storage, “helping to protect and study this vital species,” an October 2024 Instagram post reported.
At the tree line on the western slope of Mount Tallac, some whitebark pines look ghostly white with limbs stripped of green, but a fair number still look healthy. Sarah Green, the North Tahoe/Truckee program manager at the Sugar Pine Foundation, notes that it can be difficult sometimes to notice the effects of blister rust, but that if you know where to look, you’ll see “yellowish-orange oozy things” along the trunks and limbs.
There are few hikes that allow you to see whitebark pines without climbing to the ridges or peaks. Though it can be grueling, the hike to the top of Mount Tallac is rewarding. Not only can you see whitebark pine—identify the tree by its five-bunched needles, closed cones and grey, scaly bark—but the views of the Tahoe Basin and Crystal Range are incredible. A great way to break up this hike is to camp at Gilmore Lake in Desolation Wilderness. From the lake, it is a little more than 1.5 miles to the peak. Camping at Gilmore requires a backcountry permit, available at recreation.gov.
If you’d like an adventure a bit closer to Reno, check out Donner Summit via trails like the Mount Judah Loop Trail, which is a little more than five miles and features whitebark pines along the ridge along with incredible views. The Mount Rose Peak Trail is a classic as well. There, the whitebark pines are especially present on the switchbacks just under the summit (around mile 4).
If you’d like to get involved with conifer-conservation efforts, volunteer locally with or donate to the Sugar Pine Foundation or Friends of Nevada Wilderness. The Sugar Pine Foundation does not want the public to collect seeds from whitebarks, but you can help water or plant seedlings. Through the foundation, you can also adopt a tree or an acre of land—GPS coordinates and photos included. Your financial support of the organization goes directly toward restoring Tahoe’s sugar pines and other white pines, regenerating burn scars, improving overall forest health and diversity, and building a culture of environmental stewardship in the Tahoe region.