Watering at Burton Creek State Park

An Interview with Paul Courter

Last year, California State Parks conducted a prescribed burn in Burton Creek State Park (SP) near Tahoe City. It was one of many prescribed burn projects in the basin that were conducted by California State Parks in 2024. In early May, Jack Harvey, California State Park Forester, led a crew to replant an 80-acre plot in Burton Creek SP with close to 2,000 Sugar pine seedlings. The site was later "adopted" by Paul Courter who watered the seedlings in the summer and fall.

Paul Courter, a resident of Tahoe City, is a retired Medical & Scientific Writer who majored in Molecular Biology at U.C. Davis. Paul participated in numerous projects in and around the basin, like cone collection with California State Parks, before coming back to live here with his wife in their family cabin. Last spring, he was training to become a California Naturalist at the U.C. Berkeley Sagehen Creek Field Station. The courses offered through this training utilize project-based learning to immerse the student in the natural world of the Northern Sierras and Lake Tahoe Basin. When he was in search of a project to complete his certification, Paul reached out to the Sugar Pine Foundation to ask about a possible field project he could pursue. Our Executive Director, Maria Mircheva came up with the idea of Paul adopting and watering the Burton Creek planting site which is very close to his house. Genome, California State Parks Aide gave Paul and Maria a tour of the site.

Once a week starting in June, Courter would fill up a watering backpack he borrowed from the Sugar Pine Foundation and hike out to the plot. "It was a great project for me to work on," said Paul, "because it was literally in my backyard." From June to October, Courter watered for a total of 38 hours across 13 days. Paul would work his way uphill while watering across a total of twelve plot lines. This is a long summer of lugging around gallons of water on his back for several hours a day. He would sometimes have to walk back downhill to fill up his backpack at Burton Creek or at his friend's house on Rocky Ridge Road to finish watering the seedlings for the day. "Hiking was the hardest part," he noted, "but the views made all of the hard work worth it." At the end of the season, Paul had confidently watered close to half of the seedlings in the planting site for a total of 783 trees. That is impressive for just one person!

Pictured from left to right: Genome Rodríguez, Maria Mircheva & Paul Courter

Paul, whose background is in data collection and writing, created a table to record his findings while out in the field. The table rows run chronologically. The first column's name includes the date/hours/line that was watered, the number of trees on those lines that received water, how many of the seedlings had browned needles, exposed roots or were dead. He also noted the number of water backpack refills that were required to complete that line.

One of the most interesting conclusions we can make based on the data table is that the seedlings at this planting site had a high survival rate. As of October 13th, 2024, only about 3% of the seedlings that received watered had died. Similarly, only about 4% of seedlings had needles that browned and about 2% of seedlings had exposed roots. These findings show a strong promise that consistent watering during the early stages of seedling establishment can really help increase survival rate.

The data table is a summary of Paul’s work from summer 2024. The first column shows which date and for how many hours Paul spent watering. The “lines” are the transects that volunteers planted trees along. If a tree looked like it was close to dying, they are followed with “SA”. The H2O refill letters are “BC” for Burton Creek and “RR” for Rocky Ridge.

This watering project in a recently burned area opens the floor to questions of whether seedling survival could be tied to the amount of nutrient ash in the soil. We are constantly analyzing factors that lead to higher seedling survival. Planting correctly and watering in the drier months are the most important factors we have identified.

Would planting seedlings in a burn site increase their survival if we planted them sooner rather than later? What questions do these findings inspire in your mind? Can you think of ways we can manage our forests so as to further increase seedling survival after they are planted?