Voters in the Mountain West region are increasingly concerned about the state of public lands heading into the midterm elections, a wide-ranging new poll found.
The 16th Conservation in the West poll by Colorado College surveyed more than 3,000 voters across the political spectrum in January from Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona.
85% of respondents said public lands, water and wildlife are important factors in deciding their vote. That puts conservation on par with other key election issues, said Lori Weigel, the principal of New Bridge Strategy who worked on the survey.
“Like the economy, healthcare and education – sort of the perennials out there. Conservation is clearly right in that mix of important issues,” she said.
The results show that the environment is increasing in its election importance, up 10 percentage points from a decade ago, even amid growing affordability concerns in the region.
Other poll findings:
- 84% of voters say the rollback of laws that protect land, water, and wildlife is a serious problem
- Solar is the energy source Western voters most want to prioritize. They ranked coal as the lowest
- Wyoming is the only Mountain West state where voters say fossil fuel energy sources and mining are a higher priority than renewables
- Coloradans are more concerned than voters in any other state in the region about public lands funding cuts, with 68% saying it’s an extremely or very serious problem
- 76% of Western voters oppose selling public lands for housing
- 87% are concerned about inadequate water supplies, with the highest levels of concern in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah
Bipartisan sentiment
The poll also suggests burgeoning support for conservation among Republicans. 62% now say that it’s more important for Congress to protect public lands for clean water, air quality, wildlife habitat and recreation than to maximize their energy production, up from 48% in 2019.
Republican support for existing national monument protections has increased from 83% last year to 87% this year. Opposition to public lands funding cuts is also up from last year, with 77% of Republicans, and three-quarters of those who identify with the “Make America Great Again” movement expressing that it’s a serious problem.
This could be in response to the Trump administration’s mass layoffs over the past year. National Park Service advocates, for example, say the agency lost about a quarter of its permanent staff as a result of probationary employee cuts and pushes for early retirement.
The White House proposed more budget slashes, which Congress ultimately rejected.
“Now that things are happening, the level of concern is very different,” she said. “It's something where we're just seeing greater intensity, even compared to the first Trump administration, where people are just saying these funding cuts are really a problem."
Although the poll indicated that support for public lands and conservation spans political affiliation, voters increasingly have the perception that these are partisan issues.
A decade ago, just 10% said partisanship over lands, waters and wildlife concerns would make it hard to get things done. As of this year, it’s a view that more than a third of voters hold.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Boise State Public Radio, Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Northern Colorado, KANW in New Mexico, Colorado Public Radio and KJZZ in Arizona as well as NPR, with support from affiliate newsrooms across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Eric and Wendy Schmidt.
