GREEN RIVER - A loose-knit coalition of conservation groups and individuals formed last month to advocate for the protection of the Jack Morrow Hills in southwestern Wyoming's Red Desert area.

The Lander-based Friends of the Red Desert said the group is concerned about the negative impacts from future oil and gas development in the hills that might occur under a new Bureau of Land Management plan for the area.

The group announced the opening of a second office in Rock Springs last week.

A spokesman said Friday the group wants to better educate the public about the area's unique resources and alert them to the potential impacts that could occur under the BLM's management plan for the hills.

Rock Springs coordinator Scott Boettcher said the group has strong reservations concerning the preferred alternative outlined in the BLM's supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the Jack Morrow Hills Coordinated Activity Plan released last month.

The preferred alternative allows for the development of more than 200 oil and gas wells within the study area over the next two decades.

He said the alternative does not go near far enough in its protections for the hills. He said group members worry about the impact of the increased roads, vehicles and drilling rigs in the area.

Boettcher said the group is urging the BLM to adopt a citizen's conservation alternative drafted by conservation groups two years ago.

The 620,000-acre Jack Morrow Hills is home to the largest migratory game herd in the lower 48 states, the largest desert elk herd in the world, the largest active sand dune in North America, seven wilderness study areas, the Oregon, Mormon and California pioneer trails, and many Indian holy sites.

The area is also prized, however, by energy companies for the approximately 150 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and large reserves of coal and oil.

"The thing we want to stress is … we are just a group trying to educate the public about the unique resource we have out there and to let them know that if we all speak together, we can stop oil and gas drilling in that area," Boettcher said in an interview.

"We are not opposed to oil and gas drilling in other areas … we realize it's a necessity," Boettcher emphasized. He noted that if all the energy deposits in the hills were developed, the nation would only be supplied with nine weeks of natural gas use and 39 minutes of oil use at current consumption rates.

Boettcher characterized the group as a "loose-knit coalition" of conservation, recreation, education, business and Native American groups that are committed to seeking permanent protections for the hills.

He said the group is chartered under state law as a nonprofit organization and currently has more than 50 members, including a dozen or more conservation organizations. It has developed a Web site (www.reddesert.org) that explains more about the organization.

Boettcher said residents can gather information about the group and the Jack Morrow Hills issue at the new Rock Springs office. The office is located in Unit A, 1329 9th Street.

He said the group is focusing much of its efforts on drawing a large turnout for the BLM's formal public hearings on the supplemental EIS.

Hearings are scheduled for April 9 in Rock Springs and April 10 in Lander.

"We want to draw lots of support for those public hearings," he said.

Boettcher said organization members are scheduled to meet with Sweetwater County Commissioners Tuesday to discuss the group's efforts. The state of Wyoming, Sweetwater County and Fremont County were granted cooperating agency status during the supplemental EIS process.

He said the group is also seeking public comment on the BLM plan by the agency's May 23 deadline. The group has posted a form letter on its Web site that calls on the agency to select the citizen's alternative as its preferred alternative.

The alternative was drafted by the Wyoming Outdoor Council and a coalition of varied interests in the summer of 2000. It sought to ban large-scale mining in the hills and to eliminate all current and future oil and gas leases in the area.

The BLM's preferred alternative discounts past public comments that called for protecting the hills, according to the group's Web site. The BLM received over 12,000 comments, most touting the citizen's alternative, following the release of a first draft EIS on the hills.

During a special visit to Wyoming in the fall of 2000, then Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt directed the BLM to rewrite the Jack Morrow Hills Coordinated Activity Plan with the conservation alternative as the preferred alternative.

The Bush administration later overturned the order, but did commit to the new study.

Friends of the Red Desert say the BLM preferred alternative refuses to consider the trade or buyout of mineral leases in the area, ignores the citizens proposal to expand wilderness study areas and will negatively impact crucial wildlife habitat.