BLM defers proposed energy lease sale in Parowan Gap

WASHINGTON — Federal Bureau of Land Management officials in Utah, holding their first quarterly oil and gas lease sale of the year Tuesday agreed not to include 14 parcels, much of it near Iron County's Parowan Gap, rich with centuries-old American Indian rock art.

But the BLM's decision to do further analysis about the value of leasing 138,000 acres didn't impress environmentalists, who contend the agency should not have submitted them in the first place.

BLM officials contend their lease sale is relatively small, partly in response to an August court ruling by U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball in Salt Lake City, who criticized the agency for taking a "lease now, think later" approach to a previous sale of land worthy of protection because of its wilderness qualities.

This year, the agency received nominations to lease 246,000 acres but offered only 108,000 acres after receiving protests on 74 parcels from three groups.

BLM spokeswoman Adrienne Babbitt said that after reviewing the protests, officials decided to "take some extra caution" and do additional research about whether the land's environmental and historical value should keep it off-limits to energy development.

"We felt like we had gone through quite a bit of environmental review, but once we heard the protests, we took (some parcels) back," she said Tuesday.

Steve Bloch, a staff lawyer for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, said the parcels shouldn't have made it onto the sale list if the agency was following the court ruling.

Environmentalists are particularly concerned about parcels outside the Parowan Gap, a waterless wind gap where centuries ago, Indians etched geometric designs, images of lizards, snakes, mountain sheep, bear claws and human figures along the smooth canyon walls.

They say the BLM proposed leasing — and withdrew — parcels in the same area in 2005.

The agency has a history of offering leases in sensitive areas — including near Arches and Canyonlands national parks — and withdrawing them only after environmentalist protests, they say.

This time the BLM backed down on six of eight parcels in the Parowan Gap "only after we marshaled the troops," Bloch said.

"That's not doing it the right way," Bloch said. "It's following the administration's policy of, 'Lease first and think later."'