Officials with the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and Lands said Tuesday that the suspension of the leases - offered for sale last fall - was part of a larger agreement to reopen the state's Great Salt Lake Mineral Leasing Plan, which was established in 1996.

"The mineral leasing plan is 10 years old. It's time to take a look and see if there's new information or new issues concerning the division's public trust responsibilities and the mineral resources of the Great Salt Lake," said Joel Frandsen, division director.

Another 55,000 acres of Great Salt Lake energy leases issued earlier last year will remain unaffected by the settlement.

An attorney representing the conservation groups - which include the Utah Chapter of the Sierra Club, Friends of Great Salt Lake and the Great Salt Lake Audubon - called the settlement a victory for anyone concerned about the Great Salt Lake and its fragile and complex ecosystem.

"We see this as an opportunity for the state and the public to revisit the whole issue of whether it is appropriate to offer these leases," said Sean Phelan, an attorney with the Salt Lake City office of Western Resource Advocates.

"The state did the right thing here," he added. "They appreciate that they manage these lands for the public's benefit and that there was a real issue here. What is needed is site-specific analysis and a determination of the long-term costs and benefits of such leasing."

The state in November announced the final phase of a nearly yearlong oil and gas leasing process, offering up 52 tracts of sovereign state lands under the bed of the Great Salt Lake - an area that covered roughly 120,000 acres northwest of Promontory Point near Rozel Point, home of the lake's famous Spiral Jetty. Altogether, 78 parcels were offered dating back to the previous February. The total number of leases covered just over 175,000 acres.

Environmental groups were initially caught flat-footed by the sale, which was proposed as part of an updated comprehensive management plan for the lake issued in May 2000.

State officials said at the time that site-specific analysis wouldn't be necessary until actual development proposals were approved. But that changed when the environmental coalition challenged the leases on grounds that the updated management plan "identifies, but does not analyze" potential serious adverse impacts that could arise from energy development.

The comprehensive management plan, they argued, also noted the presence of "sensitive ecological interests" in the lake's north arm that are currently buffered by limited access. The area provides critical habitat for American white pelicans and other shorebirds.

State officials and the conservation groups began negotiating in January, signing the settlement last week.

"We looked for areas of compromise and we found some," said Dave Grierson, the state's sovereign lands coordinator. "The Great Salt Lake's comprehensive management plan was [tied] to the mineral leasing plan, so we're going to revisit the mineral leasing plan. And if we find areas of contention, we've agreed to look at it more closely and open it up as much as possible to a public process."

Phelan calls the guarantees of expanded public involvement one of the cornerstones of the agreement.

Under the terms of the settlement, the environmental groups have withdrawn their petition challenging the disputed 52 leases. But they reserve the right to challenge the revised mineral leasing plan and any development proposals that are issued under it.

jbaird@sltrib.com