CHEYENNE - Gov. Dave Freudenthal asked the U.S. Forest Service on Thursday to delay acting on a proposal to drill for natural gas in the Wyoming Range, a popular hunting and recreation area within the Bridger-Teton National Forest.

Houston-based Plains Exploration and Production Co. wants to drill 136 gas wells on 17 well pads spread over about 10,000 acres on the northeast corner of the Wyoming Range. Some of the acreage is near a rural subdivision of expensive homes and cabins.

The Forest Service says the Plains Exploration plan would disturb about 400 acres and result in building about 15 miles of roads.

"In a historical context, such a proposal is quite modest," Freudenthal said in a letter to the Forest Service. "In the Wyoming Range, this proposal is monumental, far reaching and fraught with controversy."

He noted that a second energy company has proposed drilling some 200 wells in the same area, raising fears he expressed earlier of industrializing the Wyoming Range.

Freudenthal urged the agency to withhold acting on the Plains Exploration proposal until the federal agency can fully address the potential for energy development. He outlined an extensive list of concerns related to wildlife, watershed health, water supplies, sensitive species, recreation, air quality and socio-economic effect of the project.

Thursday was the deadline for public comments on the Plains Exploration plan. The Forest Service could propose a course of action in May and make a final decision in the spring of 2009.

District Ranger Greg Clark said most of the comments he has seen opposed the proposal.

Telephone messages left with two officials at Plains Exploration were not immediately returned Thursday.

Recent proposals to open up parts of the Wyoming Range to oil and gas drilling have drawn strong opposition from conservation groups, local residents, hunters, anglers and others. Opponents contend the national forest should be off-limits to energy development because there are plenty of other less pristine and scenic places in Wyoming to explore and drill.

Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., has introduced a bill in Congress that would protect more than 1.2 million acres of the range from future leasing. The bill, which is pending in committee, would allow existing leases to be bought back and the land preserved.

Clark said the leases Plains Exploration owns were originally bought in 1994.

The Forest Service is conducting a separate environmental study of leasing another 44,700 acres in the Wyoming Range. It has drawn the opposition from the same groups opposing the Plains Exploration proposal.