Responding to criticism, the Bureau of Land Management announced Friday afternoon it had pulled 13 parcels from its Tuesday oil and gas lease sale.

The parcels encompass some 28,500 acres of federal minerals located in the Upper North Platte Valley area near Encampment and Saratoga. A wide cross-section of local and regional stakeholders protested the lease parcels due to proximity to prime wildlife habitat, prime trout fishing, recreation and agricultural resources.

The BLM said it is simply deferring a decision of whether to eventually lease the parcels until after it does more analysis of potential development in the area in consideration of all the resources involved.

"This is what we were asking for - that there be up-front planning previous to leasing," said Dwayne Meadows, field representative for the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership.

That group was among 88 entities and individuals who filed formal protests against the inclusion of the 13 parcels in Tuesday's oil and gas lease sale, according to the BLM. The sale will include 216 other parcels spanning more than 215,000 acres across the state.

The sale begins at 8 a.m. Tuesday at the Holiday Inn in Cheyenne.

Gov. Dave Freudenthal had joined the chorus of opposition to the 13 Upper North Platte valley parcels, saying the BLM needs to take more time to consider whether the parcels should be leased.

"More thorough analysis is warranted prior to leasing as the acreage in question contains important sage grouse habitat, crucial mule deer winter range and elk and pronghorn crucial habitat," Freudenthal wrote in a letter to BLM State Director Bob Bennett.

But some in the industry say the leases should be included in the sale.

Jimmy Goolsby of Goolsby, Finley & Associates in Casper noted that the BLM's Rawlins Field Office has spent several years revising its resource management plan. And although the plan is not finalized, the BLM in its revision process so far had not determined that the area in question should be withheld from oil and gas leasing.

"I think it's a bad idea to take it off at this point," Goolsby said Friday afternoon after the BLM issued its decision. "You would hope there would already have been a review of that area with regard to aesthetics."

Still, Goolsby, and even stakeholders who filed protests, were caught off guard by the nomination of the parcels because of the extremely low probability that drilling would yield any economically viable volumes of oil and gas in the area.

"Something's going on here," Goolsby said. "I doubt whether somebody is looking for oil and gas there."

Meadows said local and regional stakeholders have been deeply involved in the Rawlins BLM resource management plan revision, and no one imagined that these particular parcels would be nominated for oil and gas leasing.

"When you look at the list of folks who protested, it runs the gamut of all interests in Wyoming," Meadows said. "The question is, why were they on the block in the first place?"

BLM officials say they cannot disclose information about who nominates a lease parcel until after a sale.

Meadows suggested the situation is evidence that the BLM does not take a hard enough look at where oil and gas development should take place.

"It seems they are willing to put anything on the sales block if it's nominated," he said.

Bruce Collins, public affairs manager for BLM's Rawlins and Lander field offices, said part of the agency's pending in-depth review of the protested lease areas will rely on recommendations from the Wyoming Game and Fish Department regarding sage grouse and other critical wildlife habitat.

Energy reporter Dustin Bleizeffer can be reached at (307) 577-6069 or dustin.bleizeffer@casperstartribune.net.