“Farewell to the giant!” says San Francisco’s Rec & Parks Department, after announcing the demise of a 100-year-old, 90-foot cypress tree in Hellman Hollow, the enormous trunk of which had recently split, creating a dangerous situation.
“Tomorrow we say goodbye to an old friend, a 90-ft cypress on the eastern edge of Hellman Hollow, whose towering trunk finally split after standing strong for more than a century,” the department says in a Facebook post. “From the Roaring 20s to the Summer of Love to this month’s Hardly Strictly, its branches shaded generations of San Franciscans.”
A photo showing the split in the trunk, via SF Rec & Parks
There are, of course, naysayers on Facebook who don’t approve of the tree’s removal, with one insisting, “The tree can heal from this.” But given its location in the middle of a popular meadow in the park, which becomes crowded with people at multiple times of year, including during Oustide Lands and Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, it hardly seems wise for a city agency to take any chances with the tree’s structural integrity.
Rec & Parks assures us the tree will be recycled, though.
“Though it can no longer stand, its story isn’t over. Its wood will be repurposed in our nature exploration areas, where it will continue to bring joy,” the department says. Hopefully that doesn’t mean it will all end up as mulch.
The tree is an example of a Monterey cypress, one of thousands that stand in Golden Gate Park, along with many Monterey pines — both of which thrive in sandy soils. The species was chosen by landscape designer Frederick Law Olmstead in his design for Oakland’s Mountain View Cemetery, and recommended for Golden Gate Park in his early proposals for it, noting its resilience to coastal conditions. (The Chronicle suggests the species was the selection of William Hammond Hall, the park’s first superintendent, but we’ll need to check the receipts on this.)
The species can live upwards of 200 years, however its lifespan is typically shortened by the harshness of the weather and its closeness to the coast. And as we learned during the harsh winter of 2023, Monterey cypress have an average “failure point,” in which trunks split or large branches come off, of 66 years. The towering specimens in Alamo Square Park were planted around 1860, and are therefore over 160 years old.
Golden Gate Park was primarily sand dunes prior to its construction, and many of the earliest planted trees — the park opened in 1870 — are now around 155 years old.
Below, a sunset photo of the Hellman Hollow tree from a few weeks ago, posted to Facebook by Jennifer Cee.
Photo by Jennifer Cee/Facebook