CHEYENNE - The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has overwhelmed Sublette County residents by handing down in less than a month's time two huge documents governing long-term energy development in the county, a spokeswoman for a citizens' conservation group said.

In a span of three weeks the BLM released its newest proposal for management of its land in the Pinedale area and announced its final decision on drilling 4,400 new wells in the Pinedale Anticline.

The separate documents each contain vast amounts of complicated data and bureaucratic language that can take weeks to thoroughly read and understand. The deadline for the public to comment on one of the documents - the agency's proposed management plan for energy resources in the Pinedale area - is Monday.

Linda Baker, coordinator of the Upper Green River Valley Coalition, which consists of citizens, sportsmen, environmentalists and others, complained that the timing of the documents' release is overwhelming to people in Sublette County who are most affected by the decisions and proposals.

"I think it's really unfair to the people of Sublette County and Wyoming to issue two huge documents like this at the same time," Baker said. "It's pretty obvious to me that there's some intention behind that, which makes it very difficult for any further public involvement."

Energy company officials say they're also still digesting the newly released materials.

Chuck Otto, manager of the BLM's Pinedale office, said the timing of the two documents was not intentional. He blamed "an unfortunate set of circumstances" that delayed completion of one document.

"We knew we were going to be close, but we thought we had a good month or more separation between the two documents," he said. "Turned out not to be that way."

The BLM on Aug. 22 released its proposed management plan for the 1,875 square miles of mineral estate the agency owns in the Pinedale area.

The land contains rich deposits of natural gas and also is a migration route for deer and pronghorn. That's led to conflicting interests between energy companies that want to tap underground resources and environmentalists and others concerned about wildlife and open space.

"The public is expected to digest four volumes of highly technical information and comment in a 30-day period," Baker said.

On Sept. 12, the BLM announced it had approved a final decision on a separate plan to allow drilling 4,400 new natural gas wells on the 200,000-acre Pinedale Anticline, which is located inside the Pinedale management area.

The final plan approved by the BLM contained some changes from previous proposals on the Anticline drilling. It is no longer subject to public comment, but it can be challenged through the court system.

Baker was still going through the overall Pinedale area management plan released Aug. 22 when the Anticline decision came down. She said she hasn't had time to read through the Anticline decision.

Otto acknowledged that both documents were "substantial" in size.

Work on the proposed management plan for the Pinedale area began back in 2002. Under normal circumstances, the plan would have been completed in three or four years.

But Otto said the plan was delayed first by a complete rewrite and then delayed again when Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal said the new version released earlier this summer was unacceptable.

The BLM reworked the plan to make it acceptable to Freudenthal, who eventually endorsed it, Otto said. But that delayed the final decision by about five weeks, he said.

Otto said the delays resulted in better documents on both accounts.