There'll be no "thumper trucks" in the sandstone cathedrals of Adobe Town. However, the 32-ton seismic trucks may be allowed to pound the ground on the fringes and through much of 130 square miles in the southern Red Desert, including Kinney Rim and Powder Rim.

The Wyoming Bureau of Land Management this week issued its environmental assessment of the Cherokee West 3D seismic survey proposed by Kerr McGee Corp. and Veritas DGC Land Inc. The companies are looking for pockets of natural gas. No decision has been made on the proposal, and the BLM Rawlins Field Office is accepting public comment on the plan until Aug. 12.

"Receiver cables for the project will be placed on the surface in the Adobe Town Wilderness Study Area (WSA), but there will be no source points in the WSA itself," BLM officials stated in a press release.

That means there will be no vehicle traffic, no shot holes and no vibroseis buggies in the study area. Rather, helicopters will be allowed in the air space above the area. Helicopters will not be allowed to land, but may deploy and retrieve recording equipment from the air. Seismic workers must hike into Adobe Town to set recording equipment.

Representatives of the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance and Wyoming Wilderness Association said such limits are justified to protect the unique qualities of Adobe Town. The odd sandstone hoodoos and arroyos form a magnificently unique setting for short-horned lizards, burrowing owls, mule deer, antelope, coyotes and other desert plains wildlife, the groups say.

However, the conservation groups would like to see some of the same protections outlined for Adobe Town applied to other areas of the southern Red Desert. They also dispute the boundaries of the Adobe Town Wilderness Study Area.

Liz Howell of the Wyoming Wilderness Association said the BLM recognizes boundaries that were drawn to favor the natural gas industry several years ago. A citizens group has been studying the area and asking that boundaries be extended.

The BLM's assessment does include an alternative that would restrict motorized vehicles in the "fringe area" that the citizens group wants to be considered as part of the Adobe Town study area.

"Thumper trucks don't belong in wilderness," Howell said. "Desert lands are so fragile that the BLM won't even let the public drive a pickup off-road, and yet for this project they're proposing to allow 32-ton thumper trucks to run roughshod over some of the Red Desert's most sensitive landscapes."

Howell admits she doesn't wish the companies luck in finding natural gas pockets below Adobe Town and the surrounding area.

"If they find attractive symbols of minerals, they'll go after it, and then we've lost the area," Howell said.

Eric Molvar of the biodiversity alliance said he wants the BLM to insist on lower-impact seismic processes such as "passive seismic tomography" for much of the 130-square-mile Cherokee West project area. He said even older shot-hole methods could accomplish the project's goals with a fraction of the impacts.

"It makes no sense to use these heavy-handed thumper trucks in one of the Red Desert's most pristine areas when lower-impact methods achieve exactly the same results," Molvar said.

News Tracker

* Last we knew: Kerr McGee and Veritas DGC Land Inc. proposed a three-dimensional seismic survey of the southern Red Desert encompassing about 130 square miles in south-central Wyoming.

* The latest: The Bureau of Land Management this week issued its environmental assessment of the project, which includes proposed limitations in the Adobe Town Wilderness Study Area.

* What's next: The BLM is accepting public comment on the environmental assessment until Aug. 12. They should be sent to: Tom Foertsch, Physical Scientist, Bureau of Land Management, Rawlins Field Office, P.O. Box 2407, 1300 N. Third St., Rawlins, WY 82301; or via e-mail to rawlins_wymail@blm.gov.

Energy reporter Dustin Bleizeffer can be reached at (307) 682-3388 or dzeffer@trib.com.