“I secretly wish that the tree would have fallen in love with me. And would be waiting for me to come around. As the seasons change, I’ve stopped here and waved and talked to the tree. I enjoy it most of all to see it as if I were seeing an old friend.”
Photo: Sakari Piippo and Trees Near Us – project. People in the photo have given their consent to use this photo related this research.

By Kaisa K. Vainio, Aino Korrensalo, Tuomo Takala, Aleksi Räsänen, Karoliina Lummaa, and Eeva-Stiina Tuittila.

Read the full paper here.

Trees are an elemental part of daily human life, both in rural and urban areas, even in locations where forests are distant. Conflicts related to tree cutting in human environments are common. This indicates that individual trees can be important for many people but scientists have not carefully studied these relationships between humans and trees. 

To explore how people form relationships to trees, we conducted a large-scale survey (1,758 participants). We used statistical analysis to identify typical groups of humans, favourite trees and the relationships between them. We further investigated how these human, tree and relationship types are connected. Results showed that people’s favourite trees exist in everyday environments, special places, or in memories. The relationship between humans and trees manifested, for example, through sensory enjoyment, feelings of continuity of time, connectivity to a certain place, and memories. People’s lifestyles (living either in urban or rural areas) and their connection to nature (including habits, experiences, and values related to nature) mostly defined the relationship.  We found three main types of human-tree relationships: 1) Admiring relationships with large, old, and charismatic trees, where sensory and emotional experiences are important. These relationships are common among urban nature-loving people. 2) Nurturing relationships with young trees near people’s homes are most typical for rural outdoorspeople. 3) Nostalgic relationships are linked to trees mostly in the memories of those people who no longer visit an environment once significant to them.

Overall, the study revealed that people’s lifestyle and their relationship to nature have a strong impact on tree relationships. Emotional ties with trees create meaningful experiences and emotions, contributing to people’s well-being. These results highlight the importance of planning environments that support the coexistence of both humans and trees for human wellbeing.