In 2015, the City of Melbourne gave about 70,000 trees unique ID numbers and email addresses as part of an urban forestry project. The goal was practical: let people report issues like fallen branches or vandalism. Each tree's email was tied to its ID in a database, so city workers could track maintenance.
But it didn't stay practical. People started emailing the trees directly'writing love letters, life updates, or just chatting. One elm got a message saying,, I hope you're doing well this autumn!,
The city leaned into it, and it became a cute PR thing. Some correspondents do get replies (which tends to sap the time of Melbourne employees.) Nonetheless, it has emerged as a fantastic public relations tool.
But, technically speaking, Australian trees aren't checking their Gmail.
