Melbourne's trees have been receiving a great deal of praise lately, with love-letters pouring in for the city's greenery - and all through their medium of email.
Citylab reports that city officials gave each of the city's trees an ID number and email address in 2013 - the idea being that residents could report problems. But locals have taken it upon themselves to engage with the trees directly.
Chair of Melbourne’s Environment Portfolio, Councillor Arron Wood called the messages an “unintended but positive consequence.”
“The email interactions reveal the love Melburnians have for our trees,” he said.
read some of the emails below:
To: Golden Elm, Tree ID 1037148
21 May 2015
I'm so sorry you're going to die soon. It makes me sad when trucks damage your low hanging branches. Are you as tired of all this construction work as we are?
To: Algerian Oak, Tree ID 1032705
2 February 2015
Dear Algerian oak,
Thank you for giving us oxygen.
Thank you for being so pretty.
I don't know where I'd be without you to extract my carbon dioxide. (I would probably be in heaven) Stay strong, stand tall amongst the crowd.
You are the gift that keeps on giving.
We were going to speak about wildlife but don't have enough time and have other priorities unfortunately.
Hopefully one day our environment will be our priority.
To: Green Leaf Elm, Tree ID 1022165
29 May 2015
Dear Green Leaf Elm,
I hope you like living at St. Mary's. Most of the time I like it too. I have exams coming up and I should be busy studying. You do not have exams because you are a tree. I don't think that there is much more to talk about as we don't have a lot in common, you being a tree and such. But I'm glad we're in this together.
Cheers,
F
Some people have even received replies, like Troy, who was curious as to a tree's position on the current Euro crisis:
Western Red Cedar, Tree ID 1058295
1 July 2015
Hi Tree,
Are you worried about being affected by the Greek debt crisis? Should Greece be allowed to stay in the European Union?
Regards,
Troy
2 July 2015
Hi Troy,
I seem to remember the Greeks razed you to the ground one time—are you still angry at them?
Greece is not out of the woods yet, but may be out of the EU….Some say that they should be allowed to devalue their currency in order to recover their economy, but the EU will not allow them to do that. Some say that it is partly the austerity program, which has made it this bad. They say austerity was a disaster for Russia after the breakup of the Soviet Union and for the recovery of Asia from the GFC…
I don’t know, but then I’m only a tree.
Regards,
Western Red Cedar
