They’re tree muggers.

The city chopped down a grove of cherry trees outside Queens Borough Hall (left) even though most of them were healthy, according to an e-mail obtained by The Post.

Tree-huggers were shocked when Borough Hall contractors axed nearly a dozen blossoming trees last month in preparation for a multimillion-dollar atrium, saying they had “fungal and bacterial growth.”

But according to the 2009 e-mail, the city’s only written assessment of the site, only three of the cherry trees were sick.

“Unfortunately, this is just the tip of the iceberg,” said Geoffrey Croft of NYC Park Advocates. “The city is more interested in photo-ops for planting new trees than in caring for the ones we already have.

“They operate under the principle that they won’t get caught and no one will care. It’s shameful.”

The e-mail from landscaping firm Abel Bainnson Butz, the consultant for the project, also gave Borough Hall two options: preserve all but three trees, or remove them all. Officials chose the latter.