Allegheny National Forest officials today will unveil the first new management plan for the forest in 20 years. It contains two new wilderness study areas, and seeks to tighten regulation of rampant oil and gas well development in the forest, where 985 new wells were drilled last year and another 1,200 may go in this year.

The two new wilderness study proposals would add approximately 12,000 acres to the Chestnut Ridge and Minister Valley areas, more than doubling the 9,000 acres of national forest there now, and will generate lots of debate from those that wanted more and those who didn't.

But it is the oil and gas well development provisions in the new plan that are the biggest surprise and will fuel much discussion around the 513,000-acre national forest with the motto "Land of Many Uses."

William Connelly, forest service planning officer, said the new 10-year land and resource management plan closely resembles the service's preferred proposal reviewed in public hearings last year, except for the addition of the oil and gas development provisions.

"The most change in the plan is in our direction on oil and gas," Mr. Connelly said. "We want to do a better job working with the oil and gas firms on well siting so that there is the least impact on surface values."

In what may be a precursor of that new direction, the Forest Service filed an official objection in January to an application to drill four oil and gas wells on and near the 4,600-mile North Country Trail in McKean County. In February it filed another objection to a proposal to drill five wells along state Route 59 in Warren County, designated the Longhouse National Scenic Byway.

The official objections to oil and gas development permit proposals are the first ever filed by federal officials in the Allegheny, where the mineral or subsurface rights under 93 percent of the forest are owned by individuals and oil and gas companies.

When Pennsylvania's only federal forest was cobbled in 1923 by purchasing mostly clear-cut and fire-scarred private land in Elk, Forest, McKean and Warren counties, the federal government did not appropriate enough money to also buy the underlying mineral rights. In recent years, development of those oil and gas properties has accelerated due to higher oil and gas prices, and some of the 1.2 million recreational visitors a year have started to notice.

"Because of increased oil and gas activity in a lot of places where there wasn't activity before, we're looking at our options more broadly and making objections is one of our options," said Steve Miller, a national forest spokesman. "Oil and gas operators have been very cooperative in the past, but the increased drilling volume creates friction points."

In the official objection letter sent to the state Department of Environmental Protection, which issues permits for the wells, District Ranger Robert Fallon states that the location along the North Country Trail of the four wells proposed by Howard Drilling Inc. of Mount Jewett, McKean County, "will jeopardize and cause irreversible damage to this national scenic trail." Gas well development proposals in previous years have caused rerouting of the trail. A meeting of the developers, DEP officials and Forest Service representatives is scheduled for Tuesday.

Similar language is contained in the letter signed by Allegheny Forest Supervisor Kathleen Morse that objects to the five wells proposed by U.S. Energy Development Corp. of Getzville, N.Y.

U.S. Energy met with state and federal representatives March 5 and agreed to move one of the wells off the road. It was determined that two of the proposed wells were far enough from the scenic road that they couldn't be seen. The developer and Forest Service representatives are looking to relocate the remaining two wells to areas where the drill pads will not disturb a Forest Service oak regeneration study area where more than $203,000 has been spent.

Jack Hedlund, executive director of the Allegheny Forest Alliance, a group representing the timber industry and school districts and municipalities that support more timbering, said the Forest Service's objections are "disturbing" because they intrude on private property rights.

"The Forest Service can say it feels badly about all the drilling," Mr. Hedlund said, "but the fact is it doesn't own the subsurface rights. The service is making it more difficult for the oil and gas people to operate, by ramping up the regulatory process."

Ted Howard, vice president of Howard Drilling, which already has approximately 30 wells in the national forest, said the Forest Service is tightening regulation and he isn't happy about it.

"I don't think they want any drilling activity at all in the forest," said Mr. Howard, who added it would be easier to move the trail than change his drilling plans. "They're trying to take my property without paying for it. If they want to stop us from drilling they ought to cough up the money to pay us."

He said each well site has the potential to produce $500,000 worth of oil and gas. "That's our livelihood and I'm not going to walk away from it," he said, "Would you?"

Although some in the Forest Service have sought to play down the importance of the two official objections, the filings are a "significant new direction," said Ryan Talbot, Forest Watch coordinator for the Allegheny Defense Project, which has waged legal battles to limit timbering and drilling in the forest 150 miles north of Pittsburgh.

"This is a cautious first step for the Forest Service in areas where we have objected in the past to oil and gas drilling," Mr. Talbot said. "The Forest Service has said it can't challenge the developers, but this action shows they do at least have the authority to influence how development proceeds."

That's an important change, said Tom Buchelle, director of the University of Pittsburgh's Environmental Law Clinic, which has represented the Allegheny Defense Project on forest issues.

"Maybe the Forest Service can't completely stop them from drilling on public land," Mr. Buchelle said. "But where well pads and roads are put in can make a huge difference, and clearly the service can do something about that."