The behavior of white pine blister rust at Mountain Home State Demonstration Forest and surrounding areas in the southern Sierra Nevada of California indicates that the epidemic has not yet stabilized and that the most likely prognosis is a pandemic on white pines in this region within the next few decades. The impact on sugar pines, from young regeneration to old growth, already has been severe in some areas, and silvicultural control measures have been largely ineffective. An operational genetic program, based on selection of seed parents carrying a major resistance gene, is described that is simple and effective. This program will be useful in maintaining sugar pine as a crop species in artificial regeneration for at least one rotation, and in preserving the genetic integrity of sugar pine populations in jeopardy from the rust.