Snyder said the 24 parcels pulled from the sale have only been deferred until the next quarterly BLM oil and gas lease sale. He said the Park Service now has time to more closely look at the potential impacts developing those parcels might have on the parks and monument.

"We're happy for now," Snyder said. "We have our work cut out for us between now and the next sale."

Under pressure from upset residents near Moab, the BLM last week agreed to pull from the lease sale a 600-acre parcel that included an area with homes and a golf course in the Spanish Valley area.

Snyder said he negotiated Monday in Salt Lake City with BLM state director Selma Sierra on how to handle the parcels still being offered next month. He said the BLM agreed to "enhanced" protection requirements to reduce sound impacts by oil and gas activities or to minimize the amount of light pollution that industry brings to night skies in remote areas valued for star gazing.

In cases where the BLM has exceptions, modifications and waivers that still allow drilling near park and monument borders on 64 parcels, Snyder said the BLM and Park Service have worked out a "consultation process" that the BLM has agreed to use for those concerns, including air quality.

Snyder and Sierra also agreed Monday to renew by the end of this year a 1993 memorandum of understanding that stipulated the BLM should give advance notice to the Park Service about oil and gas lease offerings.

Sierra said this week's "constructive dialogue" resulted in a "positive outcome" between the two agencies, which each have environmental stewardship missions.

But lawmakers this week took up the Park Service's aim to protect the remaining parcels. Eight senators wrote to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne on Tuesday, urging him to prohibit oil and gas activities adjacent to the parks and monument. The letter was signed by Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.; Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii; Benjamin Cardin, D-Md.; Richard Durbin, D-Ill.; Bernard Sanders, I-Vt.; Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I.; Tom Harkin, D-Iowa; and Russell Feingold, D-Wis.

"We encourage you to continue this important work and postpone the entire sale until stakeholders can research likely impacts and reach consensus on a way forward," the letter said.

In a separate letter, Rep. Raul M. Grijalva, D-Ariz., who is House chairman of the Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands, told Kempthorne in a separate letter to halt the "ill-advised fire sale" of leases.

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E-mail: sspeckman@desnews.com