A few days ago, I got an email from a San Francisco tree lover, asking me if I knew anything about the California buckeye at 2494 McAllister (cross street Willard Street North) - she said it “had no leaves or blooms, and appeared lifeless”. I visited yesterday, and knew as soon as I saw the tree that she was right. I took the photo above during my visit (in mid-May). In January or February it would have been an unremarkable photo, but by May California buckeyes are always in full leaf and starting to put out their flower clusters or inflorecenses. I’m not sure what happened to cause its sudden demise - it wasn’t quite as healthy last year as it’s been in the past, but it was shocking to see it completely lifeless, with not a leaf anywhere in the canopy.

San Francisco has lost lots of trees in 2023, but losing this tree really hurts. It was a spectacular example of one our few native trees - likely the largest and oldest specimen of California buckeye (Aesculus californica) in the City. The tree’s location in the front yard of a corner lot made it a visual spectacle, especially when it bloomed every year in early summer. On my completely subjective “top 10” list of San Francisco’s best trees, I placed this tree at #2 citywide.

The tree had an interesting history. In 1999 the then-owner of the property posted plans to build a second home on the corner lot. The designs for the house placed it in a spot that would have required the removal of the tree. The City’s tree-lovers, led by environmentalist activist Beatrice Laws, responded with such a fierce outcry - hundreds of citizens signed petitions and letters to City Hall - that the property owner ultimately conceded. The plans were redrawn to move the home to a part of the lot where it would not damage the tree, and as part of the settlement, an easement was drawn up between the property owner and Friends of the Urban Forest (my law firm at the time wrote the easement as pro bono project for FUF) to permanently protect the tree. Under the easement, any removal or significant pruning to the tree requires FUF’s consent. At the time, it was the only street tree in the City protected by an easement.

Much later, in 2019, the tree was approved as an official “landmark tree” by the San Francisco Urban Forestry Council in a unanimous vote. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors finally approved that status less than a year ago, on August 4, 2022.

I’ll end this blog post with a photo of the tree from May 2020, just three years ago. :-/