"Hope it all goes well with the photosynthesis."

March 1, 2022 7:39 AM

People from all over the world are sending emails to Melbourne’s trees. "Melbourne gave 70,000 trees email addresses so people could report on their condition. But instead people are writing love letters, existential queries and sometimes just bad puns." There are about a dozen letters quoted in the article, each more charming and adorable and heartwarming than the next.
posted by MiraK (14 comments total)

Note: the article is from 2018.
posted by MiraK at 7:41 AM on March 1, 2022

“The idea of incorporating the facility to email the trees was literally set up so that people could report issues about a particular tree and we could quickly identify a tree that needed attention,” the council’s environment portfolio chair, Cathy Oke, says.

Eponysterical!
posted by fight or flight at 7:53 AM on March 1, 2022 [2 favorites]

I was going to make a joke about attaching all those signs. But, if it's 1 minute per tree, it's only 30 person-weeks. And they're probably already doing something there anyway. (Unlike several cities I've lived in, where the city plants trees every two years when they die because planting trees is a job but watering them isn't.)
posted by eotvos at 8:34 AM on March 1, 2022 [3 favorites]

Treeviously: 1, 2.
posted by zamboni at 8:41 AM on March 1, 2022 [6 favorites]

On the one hand, it looks like there's only one email address and clicking "email this tree" is just a mailto: link to that address but the tree's ID gets placed into the subject line.

On the other hand, I still applaud this use of email to accomplish this task instead of rolling out a dedicated tree contact app that would have to be ported to different platforms and maintained and installed by people. By doing things this way, I can email trees whether I'm sitting at my Linux Desktop, using my Android Phone, or my MacOS laptop and it just works.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 8:55 AM on March 1, 2022 [13 favorites]

The teenage artist is so earnest and sweet!
posted by Zumbador at 9:16 AM on March 1, 2022 [5 favorites]

Humanity contains such multitudes.
posted by allthinky at 9:21 AM on March 1, 2022 [2 favorites]

It does seem that people "quickly identified the trees that needed attention."
posted by egregious theorem at 9:32 AM on March 1, 2022 [7 favorites]

(It was all of them. All of the trees.)
posted by egregious theorem at 9:32 AM on March 1, 2022 [14 favorites]

Well, that's all sweet.
posted by rmd1023 at 11:24 AM on March 1, 2022 [1 favorite]

It warms my heart that humans acted in this sensible way and that other humans used it in the way thy did :-) Talking to the trees does us all good, I think.
posted by dg at 2:30 PM on March 1, 2022 [2 favorites]

My Melbourne tree album which I compiled with the help of that site to pinpoint the locations and species of trees (in the description), a long time ago.
posted by xdvesper at 4:26 PM on March 1, 2022 [3 favorites]

I lived and worked in and around Melbourne quite a few years ago and used to go to both the Melbourne City Baths (awesome place to swim and fantastic people!) and the Queen Victoria Market. For the latter I have high praises. As a foodie I was in total heaven with the English/American/Asian/ Australian/plus others mix of food to choose from. Each time I went I swore I would only get two bags of food stuff for the coming weeks eating... 'only two'... 'only two!!' etc But I failed abysmally every time... I know many of these trees and will look for the emails of those I passed regularly in my sojourns around the (very walk-able) city. I would gladly work there again. The commute would be tricky though... a great city which you should put high on your places to visit when you can
posted by IndelibleUnderpants at 6:36 PM on March 1, 2022 [1 favorite]

I loved this then and I love this now, thanks for the reminder in a rough week!
posted by ellieBOA at 3:15 AM on March 2, 2022 [1 favorite]