GREEN RIVER - Conservationists filed a flurry of appeals Thursday over the Bureau of Land Management's decision to allow up to 3,100 new natural gas wells in the lucrative Jonah fields in southwest Wyoming.

In separate news conferences at different ends of the state, various conservation groups announced they are formally appealing the BLM's recent decision for the Jonah Infill Drilling Project.

Officials with the Upper Green River Valley Coalition in Pinedale and with the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance in Laramie cited air quality, habitat and wildlife concerns that will result from the increased drilling as reasons for overturning the decision.

Coalition community organizer Linda Baker said her group's challenges are primarily based on air quality issues, particularly the increased levels of nitrogen oxide emissions and rising ozone levels that she contends are exceeding national standards.

"Our coalition doesn't seek an end to development in the Jonah field … but we are calling for a common sense balance that allows for energy exploration with a defined upper limit on emissions," Baker said.

Erik Molvar, a wildlife biologist with the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, said the BLM's plan to allow the drilling of 64 to 128 wells per square mile in the Jonah Field will make it the "densest, most heavily impacted gas field" in the nation's history.

"This is a precedent we don't want to see repeated anywhere else in the country," he said.

Molvar said the appeal seeks a limited stay of drilling activities outside of existing well pads, but would allow operators such as EnCana Oil and Gas Inc. to drill directional wells from pads already in the field.