PINEDALE - A federal group advising the Bureau of Land Management on energy development in the gas-rich Pinedale Anticline will bring in a facilitator for the next meeting, officials said.

"We decided because nobody was really opposed to it that we would go ahead and try it, but we're not committing to it," Pinedale Anticline Working Group Chairwoman Linda Baker said.

She said the nine-member group - now short two members - will employ the services of facilitator Dick Gross of the North Dakota-based Consensus Council at its Oct. 25 meeting in Pinedale.

BLM Pinedale Field Manager Prill Mecham suggested the group consider using a facilitator as a way to keep focused on the goal of studying monitoring and mitigation in the anticline and making recommendations to the agency on possible changes.

"I'm concerned about the functioning of the group and your ability to work toward consensus with only one chairman," Mecham said during a PAWG meeting Tuesday.

"You need to focus on what exactly it is we're trying to accomplish here, and it may be a good idea to try someone with that professional capability to help," Mecham said. "Perhaps we could have reached some conclusions more quickly."

Baker said the group used a facilitator during its first meeting, with "disappointing" results.

"The first facilitator was an unmitigated disaster," said member Robin Smith, who represents the anticline operators on the group. "It was our first meeting, but it left a bad taste in everybody's mouth, so if we go that route, we've got to do better."

Baker said the resignation earlier this year of group member Bob Reese, who represented Sublette County, due to family illness and Tuesday's resignation in protest by at-large member Kirby Hedrick have left the group short-handed.

"We're now without a county representative or an at-large representative, which has hobbled our ability to make decisions, but we'll go on," Baker said. She said a county representative has been nominated and the name forwarded to Washington, D.C., for approval.

Group members are appointed by the secretary of the Interior to two-year terms and can be reappointed.

* How it came about: When the Bureau of Land Management approved the Pinedale Anticline natural gas project five years ago, the decision contained the caveat that the agency form a special group to monitor development and evaluate future drilling proposals. So in 2000, more than 100 Wyoming residents volunteered to serve on seven resource-specific task groups under the leadership of what became known as the Pinedale Anticline Working Group.

* Who authorized it: The nine-member PAWG and task groups were established by a federal advisory group charter signed by Interior Secretary Gale Norton in August 2000. The charter was renewed in August 2004.

* Areas of focus: The task groups focus on wildlife, water resources, transportation, socioeconomic, reclamation, air quality and cultural/historic/visual issues.

* Purpose: PAWG was established to provide advice and recommendations to the BLM on possible changes to the level and pace of energy development in the gas-rich anticline during the approximately 15- to 25-year life of the field.

* Duties: The group was charged with setting goals and objectives for monitoring field development; drafting of monitoring plans; development of a method to asses the monitoring data; and evaluation of mitigation measures contained in the 2000 decision record. Under the PAWG charter, the group is authorized to gather and analyze information, hear public testimony and foster communications within the region regarding oil and gas activities in the anticline.

* Oversight: Though the group provides advice and recommendations to the BLM, all final decisions on anticline management are made by the BLM's Pinedale field manager or the BLM Wyoming state director. Meetings of the group are called by the chairman or the Pinedale BLM field manager, and the PAWG agenda must be formally approved in advance by the manager.

* Who's represented: Group members include representatives from the Wyoming Office of Federal Land Policy; town of Pinedale; oil and gas industry; Sublette County government; statewide and local environmental groups; landowners within or bordering the anticline; livestock operators; and two members from the public at large.

* Terms of service: Working group members are appointed to two-year terms, subject to removal by the Interior secretary. Members may be reappointed to additional terms if the secretary so chooses.

* About the area: The Pinedale Anticline stretches from just northwest of Pinedale to about 30 miles southeast in western Wyoming's Sublette County. The 2000 record of decision allowed for the drilling of more than 900 new natural gas wells - to achieve 700 producing wells in the Anticline - by operators such as Questar, Shell, Yates, Alpine, BP America and Anschutz.

* Issues: The mesa in the northern part of the anticline has been the focus of environmental concerns from drilling projects over the years, including concerns about impacts to scenic vistas, air quality and crucial big game winter issues. There are winter drilling restrictions in place on the mesa.

- Jeff Gearino, Star-Tribune staff writer

Southwest Wyoming bureau reporter Jeff Gearino can be reached at (307) 875-5359 or at gearino@trib.com.