Public lands are not a partisan issue, according to new research from the Center for American Progress, a think tank in Washington DC.
The center analyzed responses to a national parks and public lands survey conducted after the 2013 government shutdown.
Matt Lee-Ashley is a senior fellow with the center. He says that both preservation and management issues were key areas of voter dissatisfaction.
“The shutdown really put a spotlight on how Washington has been treating National Parks and public lands in recent years, and over-all, voters do not like what they see. They don’t feel that either congress, or the administration, or either political party, really, is doing enough to protect those places,” Lee-Ashley added.
He hopes that the results of the report, which includes survey answers from over one thousand voters from across the country, will inform future budget decisions.
