--- title: Sugar Pine at Lake Tahoe: Tree Guide url: https://battleborntreeservice.com/tree-guide/sugar-pine/ business: Battle Born Tree Service address: 6301 US Highway 50 East, Carson City, NV 89701 phone: 775.232.8243 hours: Office Monday-Friday 8:30 am-5:00 pm; phones answered seven days a week; 24-hour emergency service credentials: ISA Certified Arborist WE-11728A on staff; Nevada Business License # 20131580674; fully insured type: Tree service (removal, crane work, pruning, stump grinding, defensible space, snow removal, firewood) --- - [Home](https://battleborntreeservice.com/) - [Tree guide](https://battleborntreeservice.com/tree-guide/) - Sugar pine # Sugar pine Sugar pine is the largest pine in the world, a five-needle white pine with cones a foot long, and in the Sierra it grows between roughly 2,000 and 7,500 feet. On the Nevada side of Tahoe, a big sugar pine near a house is a major tree that calls for a certified arborist and usually a crane. - **Botanical name:** Pinus lambertiana - **Type:** Native evergreen conifer, five needles per bundle - **Size:** Up to about 250 feet reported, with trunks to about 10 feet across (USDA Forest Service) - **Elevation in the Sierra:** About 2,000 to 7,500 feet (USDA Forest Service) - **Where it is found:** Its Sierra range (2,000-7,500 ft) overlaps the Nevada shore; an arborist confirms the species - **Known weak points:** White pine blister rust, drought stress, bark beetles, root disease A sugar pine gives itself away by its cones, which dangle from the tips of the highest limbs like tassels. The USDA Forest Service says the cones average about 12 inches and can reach 22. This page covers how to identify it, where it grows in our elevation bands, the diseases to watch and when pruning or removal is right. ## How do you identify a sugar pine? Count the needles: five to a bundle, two to four inches long, bluish-green with fine white lines. The cones are the surest sign. They hang from the tips of limbs, long and slender, averaging about 12 inches and reaching up to about 22. The trunk is straight and massive, with bark in thick, deeply furrowed plates, often purplish-brown, and the crown is open with long, horizontal limbs. Old trees are the giants of the forest, standing above everything else. Seedlings and saplings are thin and sensitive to disease. - Five needles per bundle - Huge hanging cones - Massive trunk with deeply furrowed, purple-brown bark - Long, horizontal upper limbs ## Where does it grow around Lake Tahoe and the Carson Range? The Forest Service gives the Sierra Nevada range as about 2,000 to 7,500 feet. That includes the lower and middle slopes of the Nevada side of the lake: Glenbrook (6,243 feet), Zephyr Cove (6,258 feet), Stateline (6,284 feet), Incline Village (6,437 feet), Kingsbury (7,126 feet). It is a mixed-conifer tree, growing with Jeffrey pine, white fir and incense cedar. It is not a valley-floor tree. Reno sits near 4,505 feet and Carson City near 4,680 feet, and sugar pines are not typical of the planted lots there, where the nearest NOAA stations record about 7 to 9 inches of precipitation a year. ## What goes wrong with it here? Blister rust is the best-known disease. The Forest Service calls sugar pine the most susceptible of the commercially important North American white pines, and says the fungus causes cankers that girdle the stem and that infected seedlings and young trees usually die. It is most severe in Oregon and northern California. Cankers on a trunk, orange blisters and flagging branches are what an arborist looks for. Mature trees resist low and moderate fires because of thick bark, but high-severity fires in stressful conditions often kill them. Drought and root trouble weaken sugar pine, and weakened pines draw beetles; see [bark beetles in pines](https://battleborntreeservice.com/tree-guide/bark-beetles-in-pines/). The tree's size is a hazard in itself: a dead top or large dead limb over a house can do real damage. ## Pruning, cabling or removal: which is the right call? Pruning a sugar pine means removing dead branches and, for defensible space, dead lower limbs. Anything at height, with branches this heavy, is work for a trained crew with proper equipment, not a homeowner. See [dead wooding](https://battleborntreeservice.com/tree-services/dead-wooding/) and [ladder fuels](https://battleborntreeservice.com/guides/ladder-fuels-limbing-up/). Removal is the answer when the tree is dead, when its crown has mostly faded, when a canker has girdled the trunk or when it leans toward a structure. The size makes most removals [crane-assisted removal](https://battleborntreeservice.com/tree-services/crane-assisted-tree-removal/) jobs. In the Tahoe Basin, TRPA's rules apply; a dead tree that could fall on a house does not need a permit, and the agency decides. Our [14 inch rule guide](https://battleborntreeservice.com/guides/tahoe-tree-removal-permits-dbh/) has the details. ## What does Battle Born Tree Service do about a sugar pine? Call [775.232.8243](tel:775.232.8243) or use the estimate form on this page. An ISA Certified Arborist looks at the tree on site, explains what is wrong and tells you whether the job is pruning out dead wood or removal. Credential WE-11728A is held by one of our two certified arborists. Cones and large clean logs are not something we list; ask the office about wood. ### Sources - [USDA Forest Service, Fire Effects Information System: Pinus lambertiana](https://www.fs.usda.gov/database/feis/plants/tree/pinlam/all.html) (read October 17, 2026) - [Tahoe Regional Planning Agency: Trees and Defensible Space](https://www.trpa.gov/trees-and-defensible-space/) (read October 1, 2026) - [NOAA NCEI: U.S. Climate Normals 1991-2020](https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/land-based-station/us-climate-normals) (read October 17, 2026) ### Talk to the office [775.232.8243](tel:775.232.8243) | Monday to Friday | 8:30 am - 5:00 pm | |---|---| | Saturday and Sunday | Office closed, phones answered | Phones answered seven days a week. 24-hour emergency service. [Free estimate](#quote) ### Keep reading - [Jeffrey pine](https://battleborntreeservice.com/tree-guide/jeffrey-pine/) - [White fir](https://battleborntreeservice.com/tree-guide/white-fir/) - [Incense cedar](https://battleborntreeservice.com/tree-guide/incense-cedar/) - [Tahoe tree removal permits: the 14-inch rule and how to measure DBH](https://battleborntreeservice.com/guides/tahoe-tree-removal-permits-dbh/) - [Crane-assisted tree removal](https://battleborntreeservice.com/tree-services/crane-assisted-tree-removal/) - [Bark beetles in pines](https://battleborntreeservice.com/tree-guide/bark-beetles-in-pines/) ### When to prune - [When should pine trees be pruned in Northern Nevada?](https://battleborntreeservice.com/faq/pruning-and-trimming/when-to-prune-pine-trees/) ### Terms on this page [Arborist](https://battleborntreeservice.com/glossary/arborist/) [Canker](https://battleborntreeservice.com/glossary/canker/) [TRPA (Tahoe Regional Planning Agency)](https://battleborntreeservice.com/glossary/trpa/) [The full glossary](https://battleborntreeservice.com/glossary/) ## Questions people ask Still have a question? Call [775.232.8243](tel:775.232.8243). Phones are answered seven days a week. ### Are sugar pine cones really a foot long? The Forest Service says the cones average about 12 inches and can reach 22. ### Can you save a sugar pine with blister rust? A canker on the main trunk girdles the tree. The arborist inspects it and will tell you if pruning or removal fits. We do not treat trees. ### Is a sugar pine the same as a Jeffrey pine? No. Sugar pine has five needles per bundle and very long cones. Jeffrey pine has three needles per bundle and a cone with turned-in prickles.