The City of Melbourne initiative to assign email addresses to trees has unintentionally resulted in a flood of love letters from around the world.
Officials assigned the trees ID numbers and email addresses as part of a program designed to make it easier for citizens to report problems like dangerous branches.
Since then, thousands of emails to trees have been received, most from tree-loving locals but some have come from all corners of the globe including Brazil, Russia, Denmark, Hong Kong, Singapore, the UK, the USA, and even Moldova.
Some letter writers are expressing their admiration, love, puns, life updates, intense homesickness or making suggestions such as to “keep away from fire”.
According to the Urban Forest and Ecology team, the most popular tree is a Golden Elm on Punt Road. This tree is about 80 years old, and is listed by the National Trust of Australia as a Significant Tree at a state level.
Source: melbourneurbanforestvisual.com.au
