Yes,
you’ve read right, hundreds in the City of Melbourne, Australia have been
sending letters to trees and some of these trees have replied back.
In 2013, Urban Forest Visual designed
a system where citizens can write complaints about the condition of the trees,
using individual email addresses assigned to each of them, only to have it
taken over by citizens who used the service to write love letters to their
green friends.
According to World Bulletin, 77 000 trees have been ID’d and can be
monitored using the Urban Forest Visual site. Each tree has an email address
with a database, which includes a full history of their life expectancy and
species.
The council staff responds to the
emails by building awareness of climate change in Melbourne and some reply with
serious and witty responses. The reason the City of Melbourne has gone through
incredible lengths for this initiative is that almost
quarter of its trees are
set to die. According to the Gulf Today, the
trees will pass away by the end of the decade and this figure will rise to
nearly 40% by 2030.
Here is an email and response
seen on the Herald Sun:
An emailer says, “I am stuck inside and am so jealous of you
soaking up the sun. You seem to be having a ball out there.”
The Chinese elm tree responds: “Sorry that you are stuck inside. I
am really enjoying stretching my stomata and giving my chloroplasts a good
workout. I spent the weekend well hydrated and preparing for the summer ahead.”
Isn’t this adorable?! Doesn’t this melt your wintery heart?
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