Sugar pines replace trees lost in Davis fire

RENO, Nev. (KOLO) – The sound of shovels could be heard in the Galena Creek Regional Park area Friday afternoon.

Volunteers from Patagonia are here to restore what was lost in the Davis fire.

Ranger Bob Holland described efforts to extinguish the fire that can only be described as a miracle.

“Somehow the firefighters held the line here at Galena Creek Regional Park,” Holland said. “So it was a huge effort by firefighters.”

However, not everything was saved.

Many Jeffrey and White Spruce trees, some 80 years old, will eventually die because the fire destroyed too much of their trunk and branches. But Golgotha is on its way. Volunteers, partnering with the Sugar Pine Foundation, hope to replace trees damaged by the Davis fire with new trees—sugar pine.

They used to grow in this area, but were cut down during the Comstock period.

Bringing them back to the regional park will make the area more sustainable.

“Sugar pines used to grow here, and it would be great if they came back here,” says Maria Mircheva of the Sugar Pines Foundation.

More than a dozen volunteers have been tasked with planting 250 trees in the Davis fire-damaged area.

They dug small holes and planted seedlings with a gel that provides the tree with water for up to five years. It is covered to expose only part of the tree, then the soil is compacted.

A frame is then placed around the tree so it can be found later.

“Planting 30 trees between the two of us will give us a total of 250 that will survive for our children and grandchildren,” Todd Doherty, a volunteer from Patagonia.

Once the 250 trees are planted, the next task is to water them. Over the next two years, volunteers will come and water the seedlings.

If all goes well, Mircheva says, they could see a 50% survival rate.