{"id":491189,"date":"2026-10-10T05:04:22","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T05:04:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/491189\/"},"modified":"2026-10-10T05:04:22","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T05:04:22","slug":"five-years-ago-san-franciscos-tallest-tree-disappeared-a-7-year-old-wants-to-find-its-replacement-nbc-bay-area","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/491189\/","title":{"rendered":"Five years ago, San Francisco\u2019s tallest tree disappeared. A 7-Year-Old wants to find its replacement. \u2013 NBC Bay Area"},"content":{"rendered":"

Like many curious children, Kellan Phillickan has cycled through plenty of interests over the years.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy 18 months, it was construction vehicles,\u201d said his mother, Cass. \u201cThen it became robots. It very quickly became Transformers, then Minecraft, then rocks.\u201d<\/p>\n

His latest fascination, however, began a few months ago at summer camp during a tree-measuring activity.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tNBC Bay AreaNBC Bay Area<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were going to measure trees. I was pretty bored. I didn\u2019t want to,\u201d Kellan recalled. \u201cBut then I measured one that was 44 feet tall, and I started to like measuring it, and I started liking trees.\u201d<\/p>\n

That interest grew during the family’s vacation in the Sierra Nevada, where Kellan found himself surrounded by giant sequoias.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was so curious,\u201d Cass said. \u201cThese are some of the biggest trees I\u2019ve ever seen. How tall are these trees?\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tNBC Bay AreaNBC Bay Area<\/p>\n

On the drive home, Kellan asked what seemed like a simple question: What is the tallest tree in San Francisco?<\/p>\n

The family searched online and found a listing on MonumentalTrees.com<\/a>, a crowd-sourced database of notable trees. According to the site, San Francisco\u2019s tallest tree was a 218-foot Tasmanian blue gum in Stern Grove.<\/p>\n

Excited to see it, the family headed to the park.<\/p>\n

There, they discovered a surprise.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not there anymore. Not there at all. No stump,\u201d Cass said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWorst day of my life,\u201d Kellan added.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tNBC Bay AreaNBC Bay Area<\/p>\n

The family later learned that after a water main break flooded Stern Grove in 2021, dozens of trees were removed from the area, apparently including the tree listed as the city\u2019s tallest.<\/p>\n

What surprised them was that no one seemed to know which tree had taken its place.<\/p>\n

That realization sparked a new mission.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe decided to try to find the tallest,\u201d Kellan said.<\/p>\n

Using a classic Boy Scout technique involving a stick and a long tape measure, the family has been crisscrossing San Francisco in search of towering candidates, carefully measuring each one.<\/p>\n

To officially verify a new record, however, they will need more precise and significantly more expensive equipment. The family has launched a GoFundMe campaign<\/a> to help cover the cost.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tNBC Bay AreaNBC Bay Area<\/p>\n

Kellan\u2019s parents say the project has given their son a reason to explore the outdoors and look up from screens. They also believe the effort could help San Franciscans better appreciate the natural treasures in their own backyard.<\/p>\n

\u201cCalifornia is known for its trees,\u201d Cass said. \u201cThere was just something odd about San Francisco not even knowing its tallest tree had been cut down, and not knowing what the new one was. It just felt weird and wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Kellan, a simple camp activity has become something much bigger: a chance to solve a mystery hiding in plain sight among the city\u2019s tallest trees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Like many curious children, Kellan Phillickan has cycled through plenty of interests over the years. \u201cBy 18 months,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":491190,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[22978,101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-491189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-bay-area-proud","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}