"The canary in the coal mine that everyone ignores."

It's a phrase that reporter Mark Schleifstein, New Orleans Times Picayune, uses to describe the host city for this September's 13th Annual Society of Environmental Journalists conference. Yes, but let's focus on the substantive part here, plus it draws from his own emphasis.

Conference planners clearly are hoping that the attractions of New Orleans and its French Quarter, even in the face of a war and continuing newsroom economic woes, will propel attendance and registration beyond the more than 800 attendees at last fall's Baltimore meeting. They are encouraging early registration for the prime headquarters hotel, where rooms go for $154 for single or double occupancy, or for a nearby Holiday Inn Express, where rooms are $104 single, $114 double.

Weather and the significant natural disaster risks posed to sub-sea level New Orleans are major news stories for the Gulf Coast and, at the same time, a key component in sessions being planned for the meeting. But with this year's September 10-14 meeting being held in the midst of prime hurricane season, SEJ conference planners will be holding their breath that the weather will cooperate, fully aware that a severe storm during the conference could at least help satisfy lots of editors' interest in their reporters coming home with a story.

Schleifstein sees the September meeting as an opportunity for out-of-town reporters to get more familiar with the Gulf Coast's coastal restoration program, an effort he says compares in cost to Boston's "Big Dig" and doubles the Everglades restoration effort. In the midst of widespread public anxieties about terrorism, he says, the conference program will shine a bright light on the kinds of natural disaster risks, such as a Category 5 hurricane that, he says, "could be much worse than the effects of terrorism."

A new feature of the SEJ conference will be a session on "50 underreported story ideas for print, broadcast, and the web." Borrowed liberally from a popular session featured at Investigative Reporters & Editors (IRE) annual meetings, the session is expected to feature quick-shot story ideas. It's still not clear who will present those story ideas, Schleifstein said.

In addition to the usual rich smorgasbord of concurrent sessions that are familiar from other SEJ meetings, the New Orleans conference will feature a series of tours on Thursday, September 11. Among the planned tour sites are the chemical corridor (environmental acitivists prefer the term "Cancer Alley") along the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge; Lake Pontchartrain's dairy farms; sites of offshore oil and gas rigs and coastal erosion; the Audubon Nature Institute; and others.

Conference plans call for a Wednesday evening opening reception and SEJ journalism awards program, Friday and Saturday morning breakfast roundtable sessions, Thursday and Friday evening independent hospitality suites; a traditional Friday "network lunch;" and a Friday "night on the town talking about the latest developments on your beat," with on-site signups for prearranged, on-your-own dinner reservations.

The Friday opening plenary session will focus on natural disaster coverage and what the media are "doing wrong," with emergency preparedness, hurricane, and wildfire experts critiquing media coverage and addressing "how coverage of preparedness efforts has changed since 9/11."

The group's traditional Saturday evening reception-this year involving a $25 fee to cover two drink tickets and meal, entertainment, and space rental fees- is to be held inside "the cavernous warehouses where many of the huge Mardi Gras floats are built and stored."

Conference fees this year are $150 for SEJ members registering before July 11, $180 after that date. Those fees compare with $145 advance member registration fees for the 2002 conference, but the additional $15 registration fees for the Friday and Saturday roundtable breakfasts and the additional $25 for the Saturday evening reception will add to the costs attendees should expect to pay. Another new expense this year is a $15 fee for the Sunday morning bus, breakfast and program at ACRES (Species Survival Center and Audubon Center for Research in Endangered Species).

Additional information and updates on the sessions and speakers is available online, where you can also register online. Call SEJ with conference program questions at (215) 884-8174 between 9 and 5 EST. Call (800) 878-5131 with questions about registration between the same hours.