BONDURANT - Phyllis Boye has one of the best views in Wyoming. Perched atop a ridge, where she has lived since 1980, Boye, nearly 80, can look out to 30 head of deer in her yard in the morning, or the majesty of the Wyoming Range in the near distance.

"I just love everything about it," Boye (pronounced Boy-ay), said. "I love the scenery, I love the animals up there. Basically I really love Wyoming and I hate to see it drilled full of holes."

It is her neighborhood around the Hoback Ranches that's now being eyed for energy development. An energy company out of Houston has applied to drill three exploratory wells from a single pad just on the other side of Picnic Ridge in the Bridger-Teton National Forest. The ridge sits right next to Boye's home.

It's a new wrinkle in the ongoing push and pull between land managers who are processing more and more drilling permits in areas more and more sensitive to wildlife - and now, in Hoback Ranches - to people.

There are about 140 homes in Hoback Ranches. Most who live there are seasonal, summer-time residents. For year-round residents like Boye, winter access is generally by snowmobile.

It's early spring at the Ranches, yet buttercups and other high alpine flowers are beginning to bloom. The ground is saturated with water and sloughs below feet. Liquid is a crucial issue for people here, with dicey water tables and temperamental wells.

If a source of gas is found during exploratory development, it means wells could could come to within a quarter mile of the hand-built home Lanie Beebe, 61, built and lives in year-round.

"I cannot afford to lose this," Beebe, an artist by trade, said.

Plains Exploration and Production Company owns leases in the area, known as the "Eagle Prospect." Other companies hold lease rights, too, and in 2005, the 23,000-acre area of public and private lands were "unitized," meaning as long as there is an active well on the unit, existing leases will not expire and are open to applications to drill. Previously, several leases in the area were subject to expiration as they had not been active for a decade in the now so-called "South Rim Unit."

PXP has asked Bridger-Teton officials for permission to drill the exploratory wells, and the agency is conducting an environmental impact statement. Open houses were held in Jackson and Pinedale this past week, and the draft plan is open for review through April 30.

Randy Vines, PXP vice president for drilling, acknowledged homeowners' concerns about water in an interview Friday.

"PXP will evaluate the water supply within the Hoback Ranches and potentially drill water wells for the subdivision to increase supply," Vines said in an e-mail. He was traveling Friday and not available for further comment.

Marc Smith, executive director of the Independent Petroleum Association of Mountain States, said he was not very familiar with the Eagle Prospect, but said the process is beginning and both homeowners and industry representatives will discuss the future and rules of drilling, as is routine.

Part of the controversy stems from the area PXP is looking to explore. There are capped wells in the area that were deemed not viable some 40 years ago because of depressed gas prices.

In order for PXP to reach the exploratory wells, it will reconstruct and realign an existing 9.1-mile forest road from Merna, now passable by ATV, and will construct 2.3 miles of new road.

Last year, Gov. Dave Freudenthal asked land managers not to issue any new leases in roadless areas until a national back-and-forth over the future of those lands is decided. PXP's leases were issued before that agreement was reached.

PXP is also proposing to lay a temporary pipeline on the surface of the ground through public and private land. The Forest Service's preferred alternative calls for that pipeline to be constructed along the road PXP will use to access the wells. The operator's preferred proposal calls for that pipeline to go through the Hoback Ranches subdivision, as it is closer to a tie-in facility and will require less piping and exposure.

Greg Clark, Big Piney district ranger, who is among the decision-makers for this project, said the area was purchased for leasing around 1994, and his agency is hoping to have a decision by August. The area was deemed available for leasing in the existing 1990 Forest Plan now being updated.

Vines said the company hopes to start building the road in late summer, with exploration beginning thereafter.

Many of the land-use plans are at the center of drilling debate, as some feel those plans should be updated to take into account the current level of drilling when opening other areas.

Shari Hahn, a Hoback Ranches resident for 20 years, said she is "appalled" the Forest Service is considering authorizing a road in a roadless area particularly one that is "thick and steep."

She echoed other Ranches residents, saying the impact of gas development to the water table, which would mean in part having to share scarce water with gas companies - could be devastating.

What's more, if PXP finds gas that is recoverable and economically viable, it could submit plans for additional development, including more extensive development operations like electrical utilities, subject to Forest Service approval.

It could lead to the steady creep of development north in Sublette County and toward the southern end of Teton County.

In a comment letter to the Forest Service, Gene Bryan, chair of Wyoming's Tourism Board, said Wyoming's natural resources bring visitors to the state, and his group "strongly opposes" PXP's proposal.

If the wells are success, he noted, full-field development will follow, "and the impacts on wildlife, wildlife habitat, air and quality and viewsheds are simply unacceptable."

"It is our belief that the level of natural gas development already under way and already permitted throughout Wyoming is sufficient to meet our country's natural gas needs for the foreseeable future," Bryan wrote.

Bryan's thoughts encapsulated the feeling of Hoback Ranch residents as well.

Boye called roads in the area "killing fields," where more and more wildlife are the victim of speeders and inattentive drivers.

For now, Boye hopes the Forest Service will listen to the "public opposition" and "may decide it's not worth it."

But if not, would she move?

"Where's to move?" Boye said. "Where they're not looking for it, they're drilling it."

Environmental reporter Whitney Royster can be reached at (307) 734-0260 or at royster@tribcsp.com.