Western voters prioritize protecting water, air and wildlife habitat and opportunities for recreation over increased drilling and mining on public lands, according to a poll released Tuesday.
The voters surveyed over the past two months in Arizona, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming also favored improving facilities in national parks and other outdoor destinations, the annual “State of the Rockies — Conservation in the West” poll found. And voters favored investment in production of wind and solar energy using public land, rather than extracting more fossil fuels.
Majorities in every state except Utah opposed efforts to transfer control of federal public lands to states.
“This is the seventh year we’ve done the poll, and we see consistency on these issues. We still see very strong support for Western public lands and conservation,” said Brendan Boepple, director of the State of the Rockies project, based at Colorado College. “Western voters want to stay the course on management of public lands.”
Commissioned by Colorado College, the poll was done by Republican pollster Lori Weigel of Public Opinion Strategies and Democratic pollster Dave Metz of Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz & Associates. Pollsters surveyed 400 registered voters in each of the seven states during December and January.
Among the findings:
- 58 percent opposed transferring control of federal public lands to states.
- 68 percent said they prioritized protecting water, air and wildlife with opportunities for recreation on public land, compared with 22 percent who prioritized increased production of fossil fuels.
- 94 percent favored improving and fixing facilities in parks and at other outdoor destinations.
- 33 percent supported increased coal mining on public lands; 63 percent opposed more coal mining.
- 34 percent supported increased drilling on unmined public lands, while 62 percent opposed this.
- 50 percent said oil and gas drilling should continue in some areas while permanently protecting. environmentally sensitive places, while 45 percent said oil and gas drilling on public lands should be strictly limited.
- 81 percent support the Bureau of Land Management rule requiring oil and gas producers who operate on public lands to use the latest technology to prevent methane gas leaks and capture waste gas.
- 80 percent of the voters deemed low water levels in rivers a serious issue; 76 percent said pollution of waterways is a serious issue; 71 percent said poorly planned growth and development is a serious issue.
The poll results jibe with Colorado leaders’ priorities, said Colorado’s outdoor recreation industry chief Luis Benitez.
“If you choose to move here as an individual, family or CEO of a company, chances are you are coming here for a connection to the outdoors,” Benitez said.
“This affirms the things we’re trying to work on ,” Benitez said, referring to Gov. John Hickenlooper’s “Colorado the Beautiful” initiative to establish green space within 10 minutes of every resident.
Aaron Kindle, manager of the National Wildlife Federation Western sportsmen’s campaign, said the poll shows broad, bipartisan support for “keeping public lands public” and making sure energy development is responsible.
“Sportsmen in the West and across the country are united in our passion for our American outdoor heritage,” Kindle said, “and proponents of selling it off, carving it up or giving it away should take heed.”
