The original plan was to lease 13 parcels covering 7,070 acres near Vernal, Huntington and Wellington, but protests filed by two environmental organizations and a sportsmen's group convinced the BLM state office in Salt Lake City to reconsider, agency spokeswoman Terry Catlin said Thursday.

But the three groups - the Center for Natural Ecosystems, Red Rock Forests and the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership - said the decision doesn't affect other fish, wildlife and vegetation that could suffer if the leases were sold.

"It's encouraging [BLM] deferred three parcels," said Joel Webster, a regional spokesman for the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. "But they're still not looking at how to develop the areas in ways that don't unnecessarily [harm] fish and wildlife."

The TRCP protest filed May 20, its eighth this year in Utah, cited concerns about crucial mule deer and elk winter range as well as greater sage-grouse habitat. The group does not oppose oil and gas development, but wants the BLM in its environmental studies and lease plans to treat wildlife as an equally important resource.

"Natural gas development is important," Webster said. "But are we willing to give away every other value we have, all these places people can go to hunt and fish and camp, are we willing to give up those places for energy development?"

During a Wednesday morning teleconference, the Wilderness Society said federal energy policy is giving oil and gas companies more access to public land at the expense of wildlife, cultural resources, wilderness and other assets that could be damaged by drilling.

A report the BLM released a week ago aimed at minimizing restraints on oil and gas production "unless it is absolutely necessary for the preservation of other resources present on the land," described environmental protection law, municipal development, private property concerns, wildlife concerns and even National Park designations as obstacles to drilling.

In Utah, six BLM resource management plans covering more than 10 million acres are under revision. The current plans are 10 to 26 years old, which means BLM is using outdated information when evaluating leases or drilling permits, said Wilderness Society attorney Nada Culver.

But Catlin said BLM uses current data compiled by the Utah Department of Natural Resources to help make its decisions.

If a protective designation for certain public lands is under consideration in the new plans, and if energy development would destroy the qualities worthy of protection, BLM will not lease the parcels, she said.

Since 2002, the policy has led BLM to defer leases on more than 2 million acres in Utah.