Star-Tribune Editorial Board

When the Bureau of Land Management released its proposed management plan for the Pinedale region last year, it was greeted with a chorus of criticism from citizens and elected officials in Sublette County, Gov. Dave Freudenthal and others.

It appears the agency was listening, at least to some extent.

Sublette County is already home to some of the most significant energy development in the nation, and the BLM's proposal opened the door to much more. The document called for oil and gas leasing in most of the 1.2 million acres of federal mineral estate in the region.

Critics said the draft plan didn't go far enough to address potential impacts to air and water quality, socio-economics in the Pinedale area, wildlife habitat fragmentation, and development effects on winter range and migration routes for big game and sage grouse.

In releasing its final Pinedale resource management plan last week, the BLM appears to have addressed at least some of those concerns.

Most notably, the agency took 440,000 acres off the table for oil and gas leasing - nearly a threefold increase from the 157,000 acres protected in the previous version of the plan. Some of that land is of crucial importance to mule deer, antelope and sage grouse.

Specifically, the BLM, at Freudenthal's request, removed the Ryegrass/Cottonwood area from leasing. Same with the west side of the Pinedale Mesa, a migration corridor for deer and antelope. The plan also requires that people on off-highway vehicles use only existing roads and trails

It is clear that the agency has made changes that provide more protection for wildlife habitat. What's less certain is whether the BLM has done enough to protect people.

Rapid growth in Sublette County is pinching government services. The state's housing shortage is particularly acute there and in neighboring Sweetwater County, where many of the Sublette County energy workers live. Regardless of what the BLM's overarching management plan says, it is incumbent on the agency to use its more specified permitting processes to make sure development takes place at a rate that doesn't overburden local communities.

In addition, human health concerns related to air quality and water are understandably on the minds of folks in Pinedale and its neighbors. High winter ozone levels, primarily from development on the Jonah and Pinedale Anticline gas fields, have hurt the quality of life in the area.

In permitting thousands of new wells on the Anticline during the next several decades - through a separate BLM document - the agency says it will require new air pollution controls that will take care of ozone and other air quality concerns. BLM officials repeated those assurances in releasing the overall management plan, saying air quality will improve as old drilling rig equipment is replaced by more efficient, lower-emitting engines.

In light of the fact that the high ozone levels came as a surprise to federal and state agencies, it's understandable that local folks are unwilling to take the BLM at its word.

The agency deserves credit for responding to concerns about wildlife in its Pinedale resource management plan. Before completing the document, the BLM needs to make sure it has adequately addressed all concerns from state and local officials, who are now reading through the 1,000-page behemoth.

For the next month, the agency will accept written protests from people who have participated in the drafting process. It then plans to publish its final decision before the end of this year.

As we've said before, Wyoming is doing more than its share to fill the energy demands of the nation. The federal government must keep listening to the state as more is asked.