Suggestions On Writing Letters

Please consider these suggestions when writing to a government official or agency.

1. Date your letter.
2. Place your return address on your letter. Your letter will be ignored if you do not include your name and address.
3. Address your letter to a specific person, if possible. If you don't know the name of the appropriate person, then:
   • To National Forest Supervisor's Office address it to "Supervisor."
   • To National Forest Ranger District address it to "District Ranger."
   • To National Park address it to "Park Superintendent."
4. Address only one subject in a letter. Send multiple letters if you desire to comment on more than one issue. Example, if you are writing Eldorado National Forest about Sno-Parks, write a separate letter if you also want to comment on the future of Cody Hut.
5. Keep you letter focused -- don't digress.
6. Never belittle the person or the agency you are writing. Respect those to whom you are writing. In many cases, they are carrying out a policy or decision they did not choose themselves.
7. Explain how you are affected. Tell them if the situation also affects your spouse and children.
8. Give examples where appropriate.
9. Be sympathetic to other user groups although you might be writing in opposition to their use of forest lands. This might be hard to do, but it might make your comments a little more palatable. For example, "I can understand why snowmobilers like this area, however, ...."
10. If the agency has done something right or that you approve of, tell them that, too. They need to hear positive as well as negative comments.
11. Ask for a reply. For instance, you can say "I look forward to hearing from you on this issue" or "What measures are you taking to mitigate the impact of ... ?"
12. Sign your letter.
13. Please send a copy of your letter to the Snowlands Network. Knowing that you wrote will make our job easier. Our address is: Snowlands Network, P.O. Box 2570, Nevada City, CA 95959.