The Bureau of Land Management issued a final environmental impact statement for its revised Rawlins resource management plan Friday, proposing to allow oil and gas development on 98 percent of the lands in the region.

Release of the document begins a 30-day public protest period that conservationists decried as extremely brief and a sign of bad faith on the part of the BLM.

The document is more commonly known as the Great Divide resource management plan.

"A 30-day time frame really puts the public under the gun in responding to this plan," said Bruce Pendery, an attorney with the Wyoming Outdoor Council.

"The Rawlins district is wide-open for oil and gas drilling," said Erik Molvar, a wildlife biologist with the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance. "It looks like the only people they listened to were the oil and gas industry."

Bruce Hinchey, executive director of Petroleum Association of Wyoming, said he hadn't read the Rawlins document and couldn't comment on it. He suggested that most of the knowledgeable people working for energy companies active in the Rawlins BLM district were likely to be unavailable until Monday, due to holiday plans.

The document outlines a range of proposed management actions and their corresponding impacts for about 3.5 million acres of BLM-administered public land surface and 4.5 million acres of BLM-administered federal mineral estate in Albany, Carbon, Laramie and portions of Sweetwater counties in southern Wyoming.

Major land uses include mineral development, wildlife habitat, wild horse use, livestock grazing and recreation.

Management actions outlined in the document include opportunities for energy and minerals development, as well as protection for wildlife, cultural properties and special management areas.

"Given the immense outpouring of support from hunters, unions, religious organizations and the public for the Adobe Town wilderness, we are very disappointed that the BLM will not prevent future oil and gas leasing in this area," said Liz Howell of the Wyoming Wilderness Association. "The BLM designated the area for recreational use, but failed to prevent or sunset industrial development to protect the wilderness qualities. Seriously, no one wants to hike or hunt in an oil field."

The proposed plan:

* Allows an increase in air emissions from the base year of 20,960 tons per year of pollutants to 42,305 tons per year by 2023.

* Recommends the Encampment River segment to Congress for inclusion in the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System.

* Designates 21,813 acres of forest for commercial harvest.

* Withdraws 16,980 acres from mineral location under mining laws.

* Identifies 46,230 acres of federal land that could be sold off, most in Albany County.

* Areas within a quarter-mile of incorporated towns would be open to oil and gas development, but closed to mining.

* Protects only 40,000 acres of Adobe Town, leaving the rest of the area open to oil and gas development.

* Allows 8,822 oil and gas wells as well as 3,158 miles of new roads - a vast increase from the old plan's 1,400 wells.

* All four existing areas of "critical environmental concern" would be open to oil and gas leasing and mining.

* Applies standard quarter-mile "no surface occupancy" or seasonal restrictions to sage grouse dancing grounds, and seasonal limitations on which times of year industrial development could proceed within two miles of dancing grounds. These are the same sage grouse measures that have been applied in the Upper Green and Powder River basins, where sage grouse populations are declining.

Patrick Madigan, the BLM's new Rawlins field manager, is set to visit local communities during the protest period in January.