The Pen Prevails 

My July 28 post (The Power of the Pen) bemoaned the fact that two Forest Service Research organizations had failed to respond to e-mail requests for information. I vowed to send off old-fashioned paper letters to both and pursue the matters until I got answers.

Just a few days after my letters to the heads of the organizations were mailed, e-mail responses arrived. I had requested e-mails.

The Pacific Southwest Research Station in Berkeley, CA not only answered my question completely, but said the webmaster already had begun an investigation into what happened to my ill-fated e-mail inquiry. A glitch in the system was discovered. It will be corrected soon.

E-mail responses came from two staffers at the Forest Products Laboratory in Madison, WI. The answers were detailed and included contact information for several scientists who had worked on the project of interest in the 1970s. I was asked to send the address used for my e-mail inquiry, so improvements in the FPL mail system also may be on the horizon.

A little written ranting can be just the thing to get results, and might even improve a system or two.