Sugar Bowl Ski Resort Partners with Tahoe Truckee Community Foundation to Drive Aligned Forest Solutions

Tags: Business Philanthropy, Forest Futures, Wildfire Prevention

Sugar Bowl Ski Resort has shaped the Donner Summit community for decades, not only as a place people live, work, and recreate, but as a partner invested in the long-term health of the region. Today, that commitment continues through a deepening partnership with Tahoe Truckee Community Foundation (TTCF) to advance forest stewardship, reduce wildfire risk, and explore innovative approaches to forest resilience.

Through fiscal sponsorship from TTCF and its Forest Futures initiative, Sugar Bowl is raising charitable funds to support two forest-focused projects that build on years of shared work: expanding forest fuel reduction efforts and advancing the development of a biomass processing facility to utilize forest byproducts for community benefit. Together, these efforts reflect a long-standing, values-aligned partnership rooted in protecting communities and collective responsibility.

“Partnering with Tahoe Truckee Community Foundation reflects our shared commitment to environmental stewardship and the long-term health of the forests that define this place.” -Bridget Legnavsky, President and CEO, Sugar Bowl Ski Resort 

A Long History of Collaboration

TTCF’s relationship with Sugar Bowl spans more than 25 years. In 1998, Sugar Bowl CEO Rob Kautz became a founding member of TTCF’s Board of Directors, helping shape the vision of a community foundation grounded in collaboration and long-term impact.

In 2010, proceeds from the sale of Sugar Bowl’s Magic Carpet were used to establish the Alpine Winters Endowment at TTCF. Through this endowment, TTCF has partnered with Sugar Bowl to release $975,400 in community grants and scholarships, supporting causes that strengthen the region and reflect shared community values.

Beginning in 2014, Sugar Bowl partnered with TTCF through the Tahoe50 Giving Club to support TTCF’s operations and inspire high-impact philanthropy. 

This partnership deepened further between 2016 and 2018, when TTCF CEO Stacy Caldwell and then-Board Chair Lauren O’Brien participated in a two-year strategic planning process focused on the future of Donner Summit.

Forest Futures in Action

More recently, Sugar Bowl has emerged as a key partner in TTCF’s Forest Futures work. Since 2022, TTCF has partnered with Cal Fire to administer funding through the CAL FIRE Wildfire Resilience Block Grant Program, designed to improve forest health and increase landscape resiliency.

Building on that foundation, Sugar Bowl is now advancing two new projects with fiscal sponsorship from TTCF. The first expands forest-fuels reduction work, adding acreage to earlier efforts supported by CAL FIRE funding. The second is a biomass feasibility study that will assess whether woody biomass from forest thinning can be used locally for energy, and explore how forest stewardship can also support long-term sustainability and a forest economy through a biomass facility. 

Why This Work Matters

Wildfire risk does not stop at property boundaries, and neither does the responsibility to reduce it. Sugar Bowl’s leadership reflects a broader understanding that protecting forests is inseparable from protecting communities. By investing in forest management planning, fuels reduction, and innovation, Sugar Bowl is taking proactive steps to help safeguard the places people live, work, and visit now and into the future.

This work directly supports TTCF’s Forest Futures Impact Strategy by protecting communities, stewarding forests, and exploring opportunities to build a forest economy from forest resources. It also demonstrates how private landowners, nonprofits, and community partners can work together to accelerate and scale forest stewardship across the region.

A Model Built on Partnership

Through its role as fiscal sponsor and convener, TTCF helps bring together philanthropic resources, trusted partners, and technical expertise so projects like this can move from vision to action. Together, Sugar Bowl and TTCF are continuing a partnership grounded in shared values, long-term planning, and a belief that resilient forests are essential to a resilient community. As Forest Futures work continues across the region, this collaboration offers a clear example of what’s possible when partners step forward to invest in forest management.