SARATOGA - Upper North Platte River Valley elected officials are united in their protest of the planned sale of leases of Bureau of Land Management lands around Riverside and Encampment for oil and gas drilling.

The town councils of Riverside, Encampment and Saratoga each unanimously protested the BLM's plan to permit gas exploration on some 28,000 acres of federal lands in the upper end of the valley.

This acreage is among the various Wyoming parcels that have been made available for sale at the BLM's planned Dec. 4 sale in Cheyenne.

Among the other local governmental agencies objecting to this sale were the Carbon County commissioners and the Saratoga-Encampment-Rawlins Conservation District.

Gov. Dave Freudenthal also came out against the sale of these leases in a November press release.

Local reaction to the lease sale was the result of the alarm being sounded throughout the valley by former valley resident Dwayne Meadows, who is now the energy initiative field representative for the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership.

Meadows discovered the proposed sale of these lands in a large filing of planned sales made by the Cheyenne office of the BLM in mid-October.

Working with local residents and elected officials such as state Rep. Jeb Steward, R-Encampment, Meadows spent the last two weeks in a whirlwind of meetings and public appearances around the Carbon County informing valley residents of the planned sale.

As a result of this effort, governmental protests by elected officials were filed, several petitions were circulated in the communities, and numerous people had the opportunity to protest the sale before the Monday deadline.