An interactive map designed to maintain the health of trees in the City of Melbourne has received an unexpected and joyous public response.
The map allocated each tree their own email address and encouraged people report signs of sickness or damage that would negatively impact the trees’ ability to “cool the city, provide habitat and clean the air.”
Instead, people sent grand emails of gratitude and appreciation for the trees and green spaces, sparking curiosity between the relationship of humans and natural phenomena in cities.
UOW Associate Professor of Geography Dr Jenny Atchison is one of the primary researchers for PlantCities, who collected this data and on this episode of The Spot, Olivia Tollardo spoke to Dr Atchison about the results of this research.