The City of Melbourne responded by launching a program to give every tree an email address with a unique ID, allowing people to send an email about a particular tree, including whether it looked damaged or diseased.

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Instead, people poured their hearts out in emails to their favourite trees.

Researchers from the universities of Melbourne, Wollongong and Canterbury (in New Zealand) analysed more than 3200 emails sent to the Melbourne project, to track what they tell us about urban people’s relationships to trees.

They can be summed up by four emotions: gratitude, lament, comfort, and solace.

“You were the first tree I would see in leaving Parliament Station every morning and the last every afternoon on my return to the station in that awful January of this year,” one person wrote.

“You and your fellow plane trees made the walk to Peter MacCallum Hospital somewhat bearable. There my beloved husband was losing the battle of his life.”

Others posed questions, such as “would you consider your fingers to be your branches or your roots?” or confided their fears.

“Dear 1040090,” wrote another.

“Is it okay if I call you George? 1040090 seems so impersonal. I was trying to contact your neighbor next to the path, but it looks like he was removed. I’m sorry about that. Do you miss him? I hope you get a new neighbor soon. Aloha from Honolulu! (Taylor)”

Dr Libby Straughan, from the University of Melbourne, said the project offered insights into people’s inner workings that would not have been otherwise apparent.

“It’s hard to imagine, without the emails, how we would have really appreciated that depth that we all feel, but we don’t necessarily talk about,” she said. “It’s not something we talk about. So the emails really have given us an opportunity to just understand how, how much people care about trees.”

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