The observation came from Rep. Edwin Markey (D-Massachusetts). The forum was a panel discussion on "Politics and Environmental Policy" at the Society of Environmental Journalists Conference in Baltimore.

Markey was trying to digest lunch while listening to James Connaughton, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Connaughton was dishing out Hungry Man helpings of the environmental stewardship of the Bush administration. It was tough chuck to swallow.

When Connaughton had finished championing Dubya, Markey picked up with Teddy Roosevelt. It was Roosevelt, of course, who reminded Americans in 1901 of the simple adage, "Speak softly and carry a big stick." What many don't remember is Roosevelt's frail health. He suffered from asthma among many afflictions.

If Roosevelt were alive today, Markey said, he'd find more than 17 million Americans in the same condition, much of it the result of air pollution.

"The current administration's motto on air quality" Markey said, "is to regulate softly and carry a big inhaler." Then he reeled off several statistics to prove his point.

SEJ's 12th annual conference, a four-day confab of journalists, media directors and policy representatives set in Baltimore's Inner Harbor, covered the waterfront of environmental issues. The "Politics and Policy" panel stirred some of the liveliest debate.

When Connaughton tried to characterize Vice President Dick Cheney as a friend of the environment because "he loves the outdoors," League of Conservation Voters president Debra Callahan politely reeled. She proceeded to set the record straight, using LCV's National Environment Scorecard as objective proof. In 12 years in Congress, Cheney laid a goose egg on green issues. His rating: 0 percent.

When Connaughton attempted to paint the environment into regional political corners, Markey reached for the gesso and started over with a blank canvas. Texas Democrats, he demonstrated, have consistently supported environmental initiatives while Texas Republicans have been been out to pasture or opposed.

Callahan struck a major chord with conferees when she moved the discussion to the issue of environmental values and implored journalists to approach their work with a sense of conscience. Journalists who cover the environment are, in effect, advocates of the environment by virtue of the beat they cover. Thus, Callahan reasoned, it is imperative that they take on tough stories and get them right by finding the larger right in them.

The Baltimore conference seemed to attract as many academicians and public poliry representatives as journalists, given the proximity to Washington, D.C. In the wake of 9/11, some reporters have been temporarily reassigned to an indignation known as the "war beat" and were absent from the conference.

I participated as public information coordinator of the National Public Lands Grazing Committee, of which Western Watersheds Project is a steering committee member. The timing of the conference was ideal. A month earlier, a group of us had been in Washington, D.C., on a successful campaign to stir support for federal legislation that would end livestock grazing on public lands through a voluntary buyout program for ranchers.

The NPLGC display table at SEJ afforded excellent exposure and put us in good company. Next door was Save Our Wild Salmon. Nearby were Pew, Conservation International, World Wildlife Fund, American Rivers, the Humane Society and the Trust for Public Land.

We brought 17 boxes of "Welfare Ranching: The Subsidized Destruction of the American West," to the conference. In three days, all 102 books were distributed.

The Fund for Animals and Buffalo Field Campaign were so impressed with George Wuerthner and Mollie Matteson's book that they kept display copies on their tables and directed conferees to ours.

I also presented the NPLGC campaign, with "Welfare Ranching" as an 11-by-14 inch visual aid, at a breakfast session during the conference. Interest in the public lands issue was keen. Questions from reporters and representatives of other conservation groups were thoughtful and fair.

I only wish Debra Callahan had been at the breakfast. Environmental values shaped the discussion. There wasn't an ounce of ground chuck to be found on anyone's plate.

Keith Raether is WWP's director of media and public information.