"At the last survey, there might have been as few as 5,000 plants at that time," he said. With the recent lengthy drought and other impacts, "we don't know how many plants really are left."

He has heard of drought wiping out populations of more than 1,000 plants of a related species in Colorado.

Besides the oil and gas drilling, he said, roads will be pushed through the desert to connect drill pads. "And they also have to build a pipeline to bring the water out of the river up onto that plateau" for the project.

Roads not only fragment the cactus habitat, he said. They also can disrupt native bees, which live in the ground and are essential to the plants' reproduction. "The dust from these roads probably interfere with pollination," Frates added.

The BLM isn't doing enough to protect the Pariette cactus, he said.

"They are concerned," Frates said of BLM officials. "I don't want to give the impression that they just don't care about the plant out there," but BLM policies don't provide enough staff and money to properly protect the cactus, he said.

Erin Robertson with the Center for Native Ecosystems said there is some debate over the correct name for the cactus, but taxonomists agree it is a separate entity. "I don't think there's any debate that it is unique," she said.

The BLM's top official in the region has a different perspective on the agency's position.

Bill Stringer, field manager of the BLM Vernal Field Office, said Sunday he believes the cactus is largely inside a designated Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC).

Newfield Energy, successor to original lease-holder Inland Resources Inc., proposed to drill something like 970 wells, he said. But because of the impacts that the project would create the BLM came up with an alternative in the neighborhood of 920 wells.

The alternative would be carried out "fully acknowledging the ACEC," he said.

That doesn't mean that no wells would be drilled in the vicinity of cactus plants, he said. But whether some of the plants are inside the ACEC boundaries or nearby, Stringer added, a site-specific analysis will be performed before any action is approved.

"We're avoiding knowingly going into a place where we might run into them. . . . That doesn't account for the stray cactus that might be outside of the (ACEC) habitat area."

Before any well is drilled, he said, "we will do an individual, on-site" inspection. If a cactus is found, the well could be shifted or the plant could be taken for such purposes as replanting.

The BLM doesn't want to approve any action that would harm the variety, Stringer added.

"We know where these things are, and out in the area of Pariette, we designated an Area of Critical Environmental Concern that was essentially the habitat for these cactus."

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E-mail: bau@desnews.com