Thanks to everyone who took the time to send in comments to the State Environmental Review Policy (SEPA) Center in Olympia, Washington. The concern for the Marbled Murrelets and the forests where they nest has been overwhelming and uplifting. Now, with several thousand public comments submitted, we will be waiting for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the Department of Natural Resources to respond (months from now) and move forward on the Long-Term Conservation Strategy.

I was relieved that this public-comment period did not include oral testimony--that three-minute window of time into which you must compress your argument and supporting facts succinctly and clearly and without getting tongue-tied around "marbled murrelet" (which I do at least once during every talk I give on this bird). However, written comments have their own set of challenges. In fact, writing in general is much harder than it looks. Here is what one self-described "Author in training (maybe)" has to say about that: