|
Documents obtained by the Center for Western Priorities revealed that a poll commissioned by Mesa County, Colorado to gauge support for the Dolores River Canyons National Monument proposal was first drafted by opponents of the monument.
Dennis Webb, a reporter for the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, reviewed the documents obtained by CWP through a Colorado Open Records Act request. As Webb writes in his story, the documents show that Mesa County commissioners put their thumb on the scale to rewrite questions so they would lead to the responses commissioners wanted; County commissioners instructed the pollsters at Magellan Strategies to hide Mesa County’s involvement in the poll despite spending thousands of dollars of taxpayer money to conduct the poll; and that Magellan Strategies released the results despite its awareness that the link to the survey was being passed around on social media, resulting in a non-random sample.
Poll respondents were invited to participate via a text message sent out on April 24 in Mesa, Montrose, and San Miguel counties. The monument proposal covers nearly 400,000 acres mostly in Mesa and Montrose counties, but also in San Miguel County. After the poll’s release, Mesa County commissioners came out against the monument proposal. The emails released to the Center for Western Priorities make no indication that any proponents of the monument proposal were consulted on the survey questions before the poll was conducted.
New podcast: Hitting the trail with Disabled Hikers founder Syren Nagakyrie
On the latest episode of The Landscape, Kate and Aaron talk to Syren Nagakyrie, founder and director of Disabled Hikers, a nonprofit group seeking to make the outdoors more accessible for people with disabilities. Nagakyrie has been outspoken about the tokenization of disabled hikers by U.S. Senator Mike Lee, who recently filed a bill called the Outdoor Americans with Disabilities Act that encourages road building on public lands. Nagakyrie called the bill “a blatant attempt to scapegoat disability as an excuse to build more roads.” According to Nagakyrie, what disabled people really need to access the outdoors is good information and well-maintained trails.
|
As more and more Americans seek out nature and outdoor recreation, it’s more important than ever to guarantee equal access to outdoor spaces. Reservation systems are a critical tool for conserving our public lands and ensuring visitors have the space to explore the outdoors, but we must ensure they are designed so they can serve as a gateway to the outdoors, rather than a barrier.”
