The Pine Cove Fuel Break was intended to be a shaded fuel break. However, so many trees had died that when they were removed it was no longer shaded in some areas. The USDA Forest Service had 21,000 saplings to plant during the spring of 2004. Most of them were designated for the area where the Mixing Fire had burned the forest several years before, but some of them were assigned to the Pine Cove Fuel Break. The MCFSC in conjunction with the USDA Forest Service and the Idyllwild School sponsored a family tree planting day in the fuel break. On Saturday April 17, 1004, fifteen students, their parents, a teacher and other kids planted 400 sugar and ponderosa pine saplings in the Pine Cove Fuel Break. Forest Service members demonstrated how to plant the trees, and we all spent the morning planting. At noon when it was time to quit, it started snowing. Four inches of snow fell to give the little trees and good start. We are hoping that members of the Pine Cove community will organize to water the little trees for the next couple of summers to help more of them survive.