NYC May Give Personal Email Addresses to Trees

Ever wanted to drop a line to a charming red maple but thought it would be a bit macabre to send it a letter written on the disfigured remains of one of its fallen relatives? Well good news! New York City politician Mark Levine has introduced a bill to assign personal email addresses to 200 of the city's trees, Gothamist reports. While the email addresses could be used to report problems and concerns about the individual trees, Levine says it's about more than that. Apparently he wants to use the email addresses as "a mechanism for deepening public engagement with the trees." "NYC is a tough place to be a tree," Levine tells Gothamist.

According to Gothamist, there are approximately 5.2 million trees in New York City. Levine, who says choosing his favorite tree would be as hard as choosing a favorite child, would give email addresses to 200 that are notably old, tall, historical, or just plain odd. If his bill is passed, signs bearing each tree's email address would be placed on or near them and city parks employees would be tasked with checking the trees' emails, or "treemails," if you will. Melbourne definitely would, as Gothamist reports the Australian city has already done something similar for its trees. (More trees stories.)