The Parowan Gap petroglyphs, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, are located about 10 miles west of Parowan and feature a wide variety of Native American images; so many that some have dubbed the site the "Newspaper Rock" of the West Desert.

In that context, conservationists say they are flabbergasted that the BLM is considering offering a half-dozen parcels within view of the rock art, one of which includes part of the site itself.

"To me this really illustrates the BLM's pedal-to-the-metal approach to oil and gas development," Steve Bloch, an attorney with the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, said Tuesday. "The BLM is pushing their field offices to lease as much as they can, and in that rush, places like Parowan Gap get put up for sale."

The BLM drew fire last year for making parcels around Hovenweep National Monument available for oil and gas leasing. The agency wound up withdrawing the tracts just before auction. There are indications a similar outcome could occur at Parowan Gap.

"While we will make a final determination by the end of the week, we're strongly leaning toward deferring several surrounding parcels so we can ensure the proper protections are in place," said Don Banks, the BLM's state chief of external affairs. "Whenever we have lingering questions, we pause, defer, engage in additional consultation to ensure we get this right.

"The physical protection of any rock art site," he added, "is a given."

The Parowan Gap tracts are a small part of a May 17 auction that will total over 300,000 acres. Environmentalists also have been critical of BLM plans to offer up parcels in the Book Cliffs and Monument Canyon, which have been proposed for wilderness designation.

"There are ways to find balance between environmental protections and gas development, but drilling in sensitive lands like these is shortsighted," Suzanne Jones of the Wilderness Society said in a statement. "The oil and gas companies and the BLM need to take a more prudent approach."

Banks says the Parowan Gap tracts are currently available because they are open to leasing under the Cedar City Field Office's current land-use plan.

"These resource plans are broad, landscape level designations," he said. "We base it on what's available, then we take a secondary look, which is what we're doing now."

But Bloch says only someone steeped in the BLM's land-use plans would have been able to tell Parowan Gap was on the table.

"In the Cedar City office's evaluation, the words 'Parowan Gap' aren't even mentioned," he said. "Yet, that's what is being proposed for sale. It's really a game of inside baseball."

jbaird@sltrib.com