Sierra Speaker Series: The King of Pines in Peril

Name: Sierra Speaker Series: The King of Pines in Peril
Start: 2025-09-20T17:00:00-07:00
End: 2025-09-20T18:30:00-07:00
Location: Donner Memorial State Park

Schedule

Sat Sep 20 2025 at 05:00 pm to 06:30 pm

UTC-07:00

Location

Donner Memorial State Park | Truckee, CA

In partnership with California State Parks and the Nevada County Library, the monthly Sierra Speaker Series connects folks to the rich cultural and natural history of the area. Join us at Donner Memorial State Park Visitor Center to learn and engage! Doors open at 5 pm, and the presentation is to follow at 5:30 pm. Admission is a suggested $5 donation. Light refreshments and wine sponsored by Highway 12 Winery will be available. No registration required.
No-cost parking for Sierra Speaker Series attendees is available only in the Donner Memorial State Park Visitor Center parking lot from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM on the evening of the event.
Sugar pine is known as the King of Pines for its size and the beauty of its giant pine cones. Sugar pines used to be about 25% of the local forests but are less than 5% now. This is due to historic logging, fire suppression which favors other species, and a non-native invasive fungus called White Pine Blister Rust. Come learn about the effort to bring back sugar pines to Tahoe!
Maria Mircheva first volunteered to climb trees for the Sugar Pine Foundation in 2006. In 2007 after the Angora Fire, Maria took over the daily operation and became the Executive Director. For the past 18 years, she organized the planting of over 250,000 trees. Maria holds a BA in Business Economics and a Master's in Environmental Science from UC Santa Barbara.