"It is a very big concern of many that the current stipulations that have been in place will be waived in other places throughout the Intermountain West where natural gas and oil development occur," Baker said. "Our group is saying that balance is needed. We are not opposed to natural gas development in the basin, but we want it done right."

In addition to a 46 percent decline in the mesa's wintering mule deer population, Sawyer said previous research has shown deer are moving farther away from producing wells and drilling activity.

Using a GPS radio-collared tracking system, Sawyer has been monitoring deer populations on the mesa since 1998.

In 2000-01, when development on the mesa started, Sawyer said, deer on average stayed 2.7 kilometers from well pads. By 2002 to 2003, the distance had increased to 3.7 kilometers.

"We're not saying that deer will never use well pads or be seen on well pads," Sawyer said. "What those results suggest is that most deer on the mesa over the course of the entire winter prefer areas away from well pads."

That could displace deer to less desirable habitat on the mesa, compromising their survival.

Barrett said he would like to see minimum threshold levels set for mule deer populations on the mesa. If numbers drop below that threshold, constraints against drilling could be implemented.

"Is the BLM just going to write off that crucial winter range for the Sublette deer herd, or are they going to say we need to preserve a base population? We need to put some kind of constraint on energy development, because it's a free-for-all right now," he said.

A June report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office said nationwide the total number of drilling permits approved by BLM more than tripled to 6,399 permits in fiscal year 2004, up from 1,803 permits in fiscal year 1999.

That increase, the GAO report said, has "lessened BLM's ability to meet its environmental protection responsibilities" for oil and gas development.

And more than 95 percent of last year's permits were concentrated in five states, namely Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.

"If not properly mitigated, the environmental impacts of oil and gas development could compromise BLM's responsibility for protecting the environment," the report said. "These environmental impacts range from being site specific — for example, removing several acres of vegetation at an individual well pad — to those that affect a much larger area, such as fragmenting tens of thousands of acres of crucial winter range for mule deer."

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E-mail: danderton@desnews.com