The Uinta forest, Utah's most confusing national forest -- it covers three disconnected sections along and next to the Wasatch range, not including the Uinta mountains -- makes about 197,000 acres of its land available for oil and gas leasing, said Pam Jarnecke, environmental coordinator.

Officials will do an environmental impact study on leasing more of the forest, which totals 897,400 acres, she said. The study will cover 778,000 acres, taking in nearly all of the forest except for designated wilderness areas and privately held mineral resources around Strawberry Reservoir.

Environmental and sportsmen's groups opposed the leasing of forest lands around Strawberry Reservoir last year. About a quarter of those leases were issued in areas prized for trout fishing and big game habitat.

The leasing should have been postponed for the environmental study now under way, said Kevin Mueller, executive director of the Utah Environmental Congress.

The last such study in 1997 covered only areas of the Uinta forest given a high probability of containing oil and gas reserves, said Cory Fischer, Trout Unlimited's Western field organizer.

Since then, more of the Uinta forest has been prized for recreation, and the federal government has spent about $37 million protecting Strawberry Reservoir and its tributaries.

The environmental study "is a good opportunity for hunters and fishermen and those concerned with these places to get involved early and have some influence on the process," Mueller said. "Otherwise, they could be significantly harmed by oil and gas development."

Uinta National Forest: http://www.fs.fed.us/r4/uinta/

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page D4.