Are most Westerners in favor of public land conservation? A recent study suggests the answer is a resounding “yes.”
The findings come from the 15th annual State of the Rockies Project Conservation in the West Poll, which was sponsored by Colorado College and conducted by both Democratic- and Republican-affiliated polling research firms. The annual survey asked over 400 voters across eight Western States—Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming—about their views on land, water, and wildlife issues. Respondents were from a variety of political party affiliations.
The results showed strong support for public land conservation, with 72 percent of voters voicing support for elected officials emphasizing environmental protections over drilling, mining, and other energy development. Additionally, 89 percent of respondents opposed reducing or removing protections on national monuments, and 75 percent opposed reducing funding to federal agencies involved in public land and wildlife management. Researchers say that the results generally show the highest support for public land conservation in the 15-year history of the survey.
The results also appear to show broad bipartisan opposition to a slew of recent political efforts threatening public land conservation, including unprecedented layoffs of federal employees such as national park and forest workers, an attempt to review all national monument designations since Theodore Roosevelt signed the Antiquities Act in 1906, and a push by some legislators in Utah and other Western states to take control of federally owned public lands.
“The consensus favoring public lands conservation remains consistent and strong in the West,” said Katrina Miller-Stevens, Former Director of the State of the Rockies Project and an Associate Professor at Colorado College, in a press release. “Westerners do not want to see a rollback of national monument protections and there is no mandate for oil and gas development. Voters from all political ideologies are united in support of public land conservation in the West.”
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Other notable findings from the study include 87 percent of respondents preferring decisions about wildlife and public land management to be made by career professional instead of recent political appointees. And eighty-six percent of Westerners said they supported Native American Tribes having greater input on decisions pertaining to public land with sacred or other cultural significance. The full survey results are available to the public here.
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