This is what happened when an

Australian city gave trees email

addresses
By Erin Blakemore Smithsonian.com June 15, 2017

They provide shade and air to breathe. Not to mention an

undeniable sense of grandeur. But would you ever write a
letter to a tree?

Officials in Melbourne, Australia have discovered that for

many, the answer is a resounding yes.

The Guardian's Oliver Milman reported that when they rolled

out a program that assigned email addresses to trees. This
was in a bid to help identify damage and issues. But what was
discovered was that city residents preferred to write them love
letters instead.
The city calls it "an unintended but positive consequence" of
their attempt to help citizens track tree damage. On their
urban forest data site, Melbourne assigned ID numbers and
email addresses. They went to each of the city's trees. This
made it easier to catch and rehabilitate damaged trees.

Then the emails began to arrive. Milman wrote that instead of

damage reports, people wrote fan mail to trees. The writers
complimented their looks and leaves. Some told tales of how
they'd helped them survive during inclement weather. Some
trees even wrote back.

The effort was part of a larger initiative. That was to protect

Melbourne's 70,000 city-owned trees from drought and
decline.
It turns out Melbournians have always been arboreal
enthusiasts. The city council noted that in the 1880s,
residents wrote begging for the planting of blue gum
eucalyptus trees to "absorb bad gasses" emanating from a
nearby manure depot.